The Trouble With Worlds
by ShearViscosity
Summary: A year after The Trouble With Sues, Suzy thinks that her life has finally quieted down. Until she is transported to our world after a mishap with Eugene's device, which was suppose to reunite Annie her with her author. So much for a quiet life. Complete.
1. Here We Go Again

I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

**Here We Go Again**

Once again I found myself in a room with the Dark Knight, nearly a year after the last time.

In the past year, a lot had happened. Annie had built her Sue boot camp which was starting to become quite the success as some of the Sues were starting to 'graduate'. Some have gone on to join the League, Clean-Up Crew, the camp itself, or just society in general. One of the firsts had opened a rather successful restaurant in Central City which had food that was even better than Annie's. In addition to the camp and helping with the League, Annie had even started officially dating Eugene. Apparently, he was one of the few guys to 'appreciate her Sue self and normal self'. Watching them together can be rather sickening sometimes. Sara and I bonded the other night by throwing cheese puffs at them since they were both asleep on the couch. And for her to get sick of the love birds says something.

But anyway, another year was gone, Gary and Nikki were officially engaged, and I was all set to graduate in the spring. Things were just seeming to go back to normal, until everything just went crazy. Hopefully it wasn't about to become an annual tradition. I don't know if I could put up with something freaky happening every year.

Of course, this time he wasn't alone. He had Amanda Waller, courtesy of Cadmus with him. That was fine, I wasn't alone either. I had Gardner with me.

"We need to know everything that happened," said Waller.

Batman opened his mouth to speak, but I suddenly became consumed by a fit of giggles. It started off slow, but before I knew it, I was doubled over laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. No doubt, Batman and Waller were watching, thinking perhaps I belonged in Arkham.

"What's so funny?" demanded the cape crusader. That only made the giggles worst. I was starting to wonder if I was ever going to be able to take Batman seriously again, let alone be intimidated.

Eventually, I managed to say, "Adam West."

I could hear Gardner swearing. Then, "Think of Christian Bale."

Did he seriously just suggest Christian Bale? That actually made it worse. "Newsies," I managed to get out before continuing. Then I started laughing harder and said, "Lex Luthor took forty cakes, and that's terrible."

Gardner tried again. "Nine eleven."

That sobered me up, and the laughter subsided. Till recently, something like nine eleven seemed impossible to think of to me. It was just a movie, something as bad as that couldn't really happen, the League wouldn't let it. Except it had happened. There. Where Adam West and Christian Bale had played the role of Batman. Where my world was fiction.

It wasn't West's fault that he had such a campy show, but I still had a hard time looking at the current Batman with a straight face. As for Bale, I couldn't take him seriously as the Dark Knight since I kept expecting him to burst into song, like his character from Newsies did. And ever since I saw that Luthor meme, all credibility for him was now shot.

Tears had clouded my vision, and my sides were aching from the laughing, but I had at least stopped. Looking up I found Batman and Waller looking at me curiously, while Gardner just looked amused.

Wiping the tears from my eyes, I finally said, "I'm okay, I swear."

Probably wondering why two minor actors had given me a case of the giggles, Batman said, "Let's begin."

* * *

_Gardner's POV_

"Stupid program..." I cursed under my breath. Of course I knew it wasn't technically the program's fault; the error lied with the user (me) for not inputting information correctly. But blaming the program made me feel better. It'd had been over three hours since I started, and I still wasn't done with my MATLAB program, and it was due the next day. Correct that, today according to the clock on my computer screen. This is what I get for being a procrastinator. A program that won't work, and no time to ask for help from the teacher.

MATLAB was kind enough to tell me what line the latest error was in. Just not kind enough to tell me exactly what was wrong with it, and I'd already rewritten it five times to no avail. "Stupid program..." I muttered again, this time tempted to bang my head against the screen. Either that or say screw it and turn in the program anyway. We just had to turn in the input file, not the result, so maybe the teacher wouldn't know that my program didn't work. I guess I could call someone in my class, but since I've done that the last couple homework assignments, they were starting to get sick of it. I really needed to work on the whole procrastinator thing. Next week sounded good. Really good in fact.

Deciding to call it a night, I printed what I had, and logged off the computer. By the time I got back to my room, I'd be lucky to get six hours of sleep before I had to get up for class. Which was actually pretty good since I normally only got three or four on weekdays. Between my procrastinating nature, and my roommate who stayed up all night playing video games, sleep wasn't something that occurred much in my room.

BANG!

What the hell was that? It was two in the morning, who else would be in engineering? I know some joked about practically living in engineering, but who'd be making such a racket at this hour?

I weighed my options. I could go investigate, or ignore it and go back to my room and sleep. Sleep sounded like the better of the two options. And the fire alarms weren't going off, so it couldn't be anything too serious.

I exited from the computer lab and headed down a hallway that would lead out onto the path connecting me straight with my dorm. Once there I would climb into bed and collapse till I had to go to class. Or that was the plan at least.

"Hello?" said a voice, this time coming from a hallway off to the left. It sounded female which was strange. Girls were rare in engineering. That's not to say we didn't have them, I was even friends with some. But one alone in engineering, at night?

I was so close, just a couple more steps and I could pretend that I never heard the voice. Except I had waited too long debating what to do. Just as I had finally made up my mind, a girl started to come toward me. Running wasn't much of a option anymore since she clearly saw me, and I clearly saw her. Not unless I wanted to be mock by all my friends that I had ran from a girl.

She must have been the voice from earlier. I didn't recognize her, but that didn't mean she wasn't part of the college. With her jeans and hoodie, she was dressed like a girl in engineering, or at least the ones I knew. Though, I was unfamiliar with the logo on it, CCU, it could have been some smaller university that I just didn't know about. Connecticut maybe? Colorado? Or even Canada for all I knew. She was also panting heavily, like she was out of breath.

Stepping closer, she asked, "Can you tell me where I am?"

Shrugging off the strangeness of the question, I answered, "UMKC."

"Which is where, exactly?" There seemed to be an edge to her voice, as if she was fighting back some sarcastic remark about how I didn't really answer her question.

Rolling my eyes I went on. "University of Missouri at Kansas City, located in Kansas City, Missouri."

Out of all the responses, what she said next was one I wasn't expecting. "Kansas City, Missouri? Are you sure it's not Central City, Missouri?"

* * *

_Suzy's POV_

When you get down to it, it was all Eugene's fault. He wanted to surprise Annie for their one year anniversary. Knowing that she still had questions about her origins, he decided for his senior design project to create a device that could take her to the other world, the one where her author was from. I said it was stupid, but did he listen to me? No, of course not. What could I possibly know that he didn't?

Since he didn't want her to find out, he kept it stored at the university. As far as I knew, things were going fine, until one day he came to me asking for help. I should have known better than to say yes since it was on a Wednesday. Nothing ever good happens to me on a Wednesday; they're the bane of my existence. But like a moron, I agreed to go with him to check it out.

He said that he thought somebody was messing with his device, or stealing data, something like that, and he didn't want to confront them on his own. Given his lack of upper body strength, I agreed. He normally would have asked Annie to go on a stake-out, but since it was her present, he asked me instead. From experience he knew I could usually hold my own, and did have a tendency to become violent when somebody really pissed me off. I couldn't deny this. He also offered to buy me Pokemon Black, which I had been drooling over but was too embarrassed and cheap to buy myself.

I know, I'm in college, but my brother had Red which he let me play when he was done and bored, and I got hooked. I watched the show, had the cards, and even had the first Pokemon movie on video along with the soundtrack. When Crystal came out I was so excited since I could play as a girl instead of a boy. It was after Sapphire came out that I lost interest and declared myself 'too grown up' for Pokemon. But ever since Black and White had come out a year ago, I couldn't help but drool and feel the urge to 'catch them all' again. And the temptation of a new game that I didn't even have to pay for, proved to be too great, and I caved.

* * *

"Eugene, my legs are starting to cramp," I complained. We were sitting on the floor, hidden behind some some computer desks. On the other side of the room was Eugene's device. He had shown it to me once we walked in. I had been expecting some door/portal thingy, but instead appeared to be a simple, everyday wrist watch. Originally he had thought about a portal thing, but figured a watch would make for easier transportation and be less suspicious. I couldn't help but agree.

"Just a little longer, Suzy, please?" he whispered back.

I sighed. The game better be as good as the reviews claimed it was. My legs were sore, and I could be comfortable in my bed instead right now. "Look, if you think somebody's been breaking in and messing with it, why don't you tell your adviser?"

"Um..." said Eugene, while his face started to turn red. "He thinks it's all theoretical and doesn't know that I've actually managed to make it work. Ever since Stuart tried to take over the world, the university has been paying closer attention to our projects, in case we try something similar. And what I'm doing isn't necessarily illegal..."

"It's better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission," I said, finishing his statement for him, to which he nodded. "You do realize that the League will find out eventually right?"

"I know, but I was hoping to show Annie first before they did." I just sighed. He was a fool in love. I couldn't say much since I was the same way once. I was such a fool in love, that my boyfriend almost succeeded in taking over the world without me knowing. The same one that was now the reason for the university's crackdown on projects like Eugene's.

Just as I was about to give up for the night, somebody jiggled the handle of the doorknob and entered the room. Eugene clenched my arm in terror, he much rather face his opponents from behind the screen of a computer, or his girlfriend. As for me, I'd much rather not face them at all. Simply being here went against the Rules, willingly placing myself in potential danger, where something would (and most likely) go wrong. I mentally cursed pikachu and his cuteness.

The intruder slowly made his way over to Eugene's device, and pocketed it. When it became clear he was about to exit the room with it, I decided it was now or never. I wasn't a complete moron though, I didn't come empty handed.

"Hey you," I said as I stood up, startling the intruder.

He (I'm assuming a he) turned to look at me. Big mistake, because that's when I shined my flashlight right into his eyes, which had grown accustomed to the darkness. Putting his hands up to cover his eyes, I took advantage of the situation and rushed at him, tackling him to the ground. We then started to roll on the ground, while I tried to get Eugene's device. It was hard since my flashlight had fallen nearby, giving some faint light to the room, but not enough to make out the guy's features, or see where he had stored the watch. Instead I had to feel my way (not something I enjoyed), and finally pulled something round and familiar in his left pocket.

Device in hand, along with the bonus of his wallet, I stood up victorious. Which was stupid on my part, since he grabbed my arm, the same one holding the device. Somehow my fingers brushed against the watch's surface, pressing some buttons. One moment I was there in the room fighting the intruder, while Eugene cowered in a corner, and the next there was a flash of light and a loud sound. And then I was gone.

****Author's Note****

Thanks for everybody who read the Trouble With Sues and reviewed, I hope you'll enjoy this story just as much.

When I first watched Adam West as Batman and discovered the Luthor meme, I could just imagine Suzy's reactions and couldn't wait to include them. I was also doing some research on where Central City was located, and found that it's more recently has been shown as being close to the Kansas/Missouri border. So I decided to make it the equivalent of our version of Kansas City, Missouri. For anybody from there or goes to the school, I don't mean to be offensive, but thought it would be neat to give Central City a real world equivalent.

Next chapter you'll get to find out what happened to Suzy, and see things from Eugene's POV.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review!


	2. Through The Looking Glass

I do not own the rights to Justice League.

**Through The Looking Glass**

Suzy's POV

Both of us, the intruder and me, were discombobulated (Yes, it's an actual word. One of the few things I learned in English 101). I felt nauseous, and was vaguely reminded of the one time I was transported to the Watchtower. An experience I never wanted to repeat again. The intruder recovered more quickly then I did, for he grabbed the watch from my hand and sprinted out the room.

A couple seconds later and I followed him, with his wallet still in my hand. I stowed it in my pocket for later, like when he was arrested. He ducked behind a corner, and I smiled since it was a dead end. I might not be an engineering major, but I had been to the engineering building often enough with Stuart and Eugene to become somewhat familiar with the layout.

I rounded the corner, expecting the intruder to be there, plotting what to do next. Except he wasn't. It wasn't a dead end; in fact, it opened to three different hallways. I couldn't be wrong. I had remembered this hallway since I had gotten lost once in the dead end, and made sure to remember where it was so I wouldn't repeat the mistake again. So there was no way I could be wrong.

Then I noticed other subtle changes. Instead of red brick walls, the walls were painted white. The posters on the bulletin board I had passed were different, for groups I had never heard of. By the time I was done taking in the subtle changes and had started to suspect something was wrong, the intruder was long gone. I had no way of knowing which direction he had went, or just how long the hallways were and where they lead. This clearly was not the engineering building I was use to.

I wandered back the direction I had come from, when I heard footsteps. "Hello?" I asked tentatively. Surely, the intruder would be gone by now, wouldn't he?

I continued toward the footsteps. If it was the intruder, I would sneak from behind and grab him. If it wasn't, I could find out where I was. At the end of the hallway I was now in I could make out a figure that clearly wasn't the intruder. For starters, he was just a bit shorter, and had a backpack like a student would have.

He snuck one quick look at me and then continued toward the door, but I wasn't about to let him get away that easily. I strode toward him and asked, "Can you tell me where I am?"

Looking at me like I was an idiot, he said, "UMKC."

Was that an acronym of a place? Chat speak? An insult? Fighting against my sarcastic nature, (just as hard as it sounds) I managed to get out, "Which is where exactly?'

He rolled his eyes at me, still thinking I was an idiot. "University of Missouri at Kansas City, located in Kansas City, Missouri."

Where the hell was Kansas City, Missouri? I had heard of Kansas City, Kansas, it was close to Central City. Then all the little things that had been nagging at the back of my mind slowly fell into place. Eugene's device. The lack of a dead end. The strange paint and posters. I then asked a question, which I was unsure about whether or not I wanted to hear the answer to. "Kansas City, Missouri? Are you sure it's not Central City, Missouri?"

"Central City?" he asked, "Like from the comics?"

Comics? No, please, don't let that mean what I think it means, I begged silently in my mind. After everything I just went through with Annie, I didn't deserve another weird situation barely a year after the last one. There should be a minimum five year requirement between weird experiences at least. "Yeah," I managed to get out, while my voice was threatening to do that choking noise that it does when I'm nervous. "With the Flash?"

He looked at me, like I was crazy. Which I guess, I was coming off as. "I'm pretty sure if some guy was running around in a red suit fighting crime, I would know."

Deciding to take the risk, I said, "You don't understand, I'm from that world, and..." And nothing. He was gone. Jerk.

* * *

Eugene's POV

"MY SISTER IS WHERE?"

There's nothing like having somebody scream in your face to wake you up. Specifically when said someone is taller, and stronger than you. Granted Gary had every right to be angry, but it wasn't like I knew what was going to happen. If I did I would have asked Annie to come along instead.

Speaking of Annie, she was currently between me and Gary, trying to keep him from beating me to a pulp for sending his sister to an alternate dimension. It wasn't on purpose though. I had just wanted to make a device that would let Annie meet her author. Our one year anniversary was coming up, and I knew she still had some unanswered questions about her origins. Wanting to surprise her, I had come up with the idea of such a device for my senior design project. Might as well kill two birds with one stone.

At this point, the device should have still been theoretical, since the first semester of senior design is more about proposals and paper work than any actual designing. I couldn't wait till next semester, so went ahead and started creating the device anyway. It was a rather innocuous looking everyday object, a watch. For portable use, comfort, and style.

I first realized that somebody was trying to get the device a couple weeks ago, when a regular scan of my computer revealed somebody had managed to hack into it. Hacking into my computer is no easy task since I hacked in my spare time, and had a number of preventative measures in place to prevent someone like me from doing the same. Further investigation revealed that they had copied my plans for the device.

I was worried, but at that point the device still wasn't built. I tried tracing back the hacker with no luck. Whoever it was, was skilled and knew what he was doing. Deciding that computers were no longer safe, I started keeping my designs in a notebook. Eventually, I felt like my design was solid enough to start actually constructing the device.

The hardest part wasn't getting it to narrow in on the universe of Annie's origins (every dimension has it's own vibration frequency, so I had to simply match the vibration frequency of a sample of Annie's hair with the vibration frequency of her original universe/dimension), but actually getting the portal to remain open long enough for a person to pass through safely. The portal would open sure enough, but no bigger than the size of a softball, and only for a few milliseconds. I kept the device hidden in a classroom at school, hoping it'd be the last place somebody would look for it.

It was, for a while. Then one day I noticed that somebody had been messing with it because the settings were slightly different from when I had last left it. Whoever it was had quickly discovered what I already knew; it still needed some work. But the same person would be back eventually, to see if I had made progress.

I guess I should have gone to my adviser at that point. But, for all I knew, he was in on it. I debated about planting a camera, but realized it wouldn't help if the person took my device the next time he visited. I'm not a hands on kind of guy. I'd much rather take down my enemies from behind the protection of a computer screen where the only attacks I might endure would be virtual ones. I admit that I've never thrown a punch before in my life.

But Suzy had. Not only had she punched her ex-boyfriend and knocked him out, but she also slapped Annie. Suzy had a bit of a temper (not unlike her brother) and was more than capable of taking someone down while I watched from a safe distance. Annie would have been my first option since she actually has powers, but that would mean spoiling her surprise.

Suzy also wasn't the type to do something out of the goodness of her heart, there had to be something in it for her. In this case I recalled the Togepi plushie Annie had found in her room one time. Suzy, a closeted Pokemaniac? I pocketed that information for a later date. Blackmailing wasn't much of an option since that would probably just piss Suzy off and she might hurt me. But I could bribe her with the new game that she probably was too much of a wimp to buy herself.

And that's how we ended up alone, in engineering. I could tell she was getting impatient, but then somebody entered the classroom. I thought they might since I had pretty much bragged to all of engineering I had fixed any and all issues with my device, a full semester ahead of schedule. I was pretty much begging for my device to be taken at that point.

Not acting scared in the least, Suzy stood up and went after the intruder. Me? I sat, cowering in a corner. Not my proudest moment, but it looked like she was doing fine on her own. I would probably just get in the way anyhow. She somehow managed to wrestle the device away from the guy. But then he got back up and tried to take it back. And then they were gone. A portal opened quickly sucking them in, and closed just as quickly. The only evidence it had even been in the room at all was the huge bang sound it made as it left the room.

I was left behind in a state of shock. The whole, I had fixed the device thing? Nothing but a big fat lie. Or so I thought.

* * *

Suzy's POV

Couches were meant for naps, not for actual, deep, restful sleep. After the jerk had taken off, I realized that I had no idea where I really was and going out at night in an unfamiliar city wasn't the safest thing to. I found a copy of the campus newspaper and started to read it, trying to calm my mind down enough to get some sleep.

Which was hard, since my mind kept whirling around. Is this really happening? Why didn't I ask if he saw a guy like the intruder? Would I ever get back home? Why couldn't I have brought some food with me? And if Gary doesn't kill Eugene for this, I will once I get back. If I get back.

I had also been cursing the guy for leaving me stranded, not even bothering to listen to my story. I knew I shouldn't; listening to some crazy person rant and rave probably went against the Rules after all. But still. When I encountered somebody that clearly did not belong in my world, I listened to them, took them in. Of course, it was only because she had totaled my car... but still, I did it, I went against the Rules.

The newspaper wasn't helping much. I didn't recognize any of the places, or people, mentioned in the stories and quickly lost interest. I couldn't even do Sudoku or the crossword since I didn't have anything to write with. I suppose at one point I must have dozed off, for I woke to light shining in from a nearby window. Students were walking to classes, clearly not bothered by the sight of a girl sleeping on a couch.

I got up and soon found my way to a computer lab. The idea had occurred to me last night, but after several failed attempts to log on I realized I needed an actual student of the university to log me on. It couldn't be_ that_ hard to do.

"Excuse me," I said, tapping a guy on the shoulder. "This is kinda embarrassing, but I really need to print off a paper for a class, except I can't remember my password, and my printer at home keeps freaking out on me, and I was wondering if you would be nice enough to log me in?" I even attempted Annie's puppy dog look she gives when she wants something. It must have worked, or maybe the guy felt sorry for me, but less than five minutes later I was logged in.

****Author's Note****

I'd like to start off by thanking my wonderful reviewers, monkey see, Loki's Son, Dark Thunder27, and Fox Alder. Reviews help motivate me to write more, so keep them coming.

Next chapter will have more of Suzy's reaction to the world she's in, and meets the jerk for a second time.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to leave a review!


	3. Stranger Then Fiction

I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

**Stranger Than Fiction**

Suzy's POV

A quick check through all the news media sites proved that I was indeed in another dimension. A president I had never heard of, conflicts in countries I didn't know. Central City really was Kansas City, while Metropolis and Gotham had combined into some jumbo city called New York City in New York. And people say we're not original with names. Though, some things were the same. Same celebrities, trends, people upset with the current politicians. Some things never change no matter what dimension you're in I guess.

Then there was the whole superhero thing. I mean, it's one thing to know that your world is considered fiction in another, but an entirely different thing to see proof of it. If Eugene was with me, he would probably say that what I was about to do could cause a tear in the space-time continuum, or some such nonsense like that, but I couldn't help it (well I _could_, but didn't want to). Upon discovering they had Wikipedia, I soon found myself typing in the "The Flash".

I felt giddy, like a little kid sneaking an early peek at Christmas presents, or reading spoilers about a book or movie that hadn't come out yet. I half expected alarm bells to go off, the computer to crash, the world to end. Instead the page loaded as usual. I soon learned that there are a bunch of universes in the DC world besides my own. And after reading the summaries, I determined the one I was from was most likely the one from Justice League Unlimited. I guess it could have been worse, it could have been that campy-looking Superfriends show. Or that Batman one. Or the one with the Justice Lords. It was a shame that I didn't have headphones so I could actually watch some of the episodes. This Little Piggy and the one with the League being turned into kids sounded fun.

I also learned that I had missed a rule. Rule #6: No matter how stupid a disguise, people will never guess a superhero's secret identity.

Seriously. How dumb could people be? Logic should dictate that Batman must have a lot of money to afford all those high tech toys of his, a job that didn't notice him being gone all the time fighting crime, and a really good reason to feel so protective of Gotham, but so far nobody had guessed who he really was. Same went for Green Arrow. And, Superman? Glasses, seriously? He had the same face, hair, and bulky body, but yet a simple pair of glasses and some bumbling fooled people. Apparently everybody from world were (mostly) blind morons.

I'm not sure how much time passed, just that one page seemed to lead to another, and then another. And that's how it was until I heard a voice next to me say, "I thought you didn't know where you were." Turning I saw it was the jerk from earlier.

"What makes you think I still don't?" I responded, all nonchalant like.

"Well you're on a computer, so obviously you must be some kind of student here," he snickered.

This time it was my turn to snicker. Not bothering to look at him I replied, "That sounds good in theory, except there's this thing called flirting, which apparently you've never heard of."

"I've heard of it," he shrugged. "I've also heard of a little thing called standards."

He really was a jerk. I mean, my hair was probably a mess, my clothes rumpled, but I had been through a lot in the past twenty four hours. I had been transported to a completely new universe. I deserved some kind of break at least. Not letting him get away with such a comment, I replied, "Standards or not, it worked. Unlike your program there."

That's right, I know MATLAB. It wasn't related to my major, but it was basically logic. Stuart showed it to me once when he was working on an assignment for class. His teacher assumed the students knew stuff they really didn't, and he was having issues with homework. For some weird reason I clicked with it, and ended up helping Stuart time to time. Which is how I spotted the error in the jerk's code.

"Please, like you know MATLAB," he said dismissive of me.

I shoved his chair away from the computer and corrected his mistake. Then I pushed F5 and ran the program. When I was done, he was looking at me with awe on his face.

"Ok, I was wrong. Sorry."

Sorry wasn't good enough. "As sincere as that apology sounded, I'm still not convinced."

"Yeah, well you already fixed the code, so nice try."

"Which I'm now deleting," I said as I started to press the backspace key.

"Wait," he cried, like I knew he would. "What do you want?"

This was going to be fun.

* * *

Gardner's POV

Why did I have to have a teacher that actually cared? Why couldn't I have a teacher that hated his job, didn't care about students, and didn't notice the mistake in my homework? But no, I just had to have the one teacher who was nice enough to point out the mistake, and tell me to go to the lab and fix the mistake, and turn it in before the end of the day. And of course I couldn't say no to such a generous opportunity.

I didn't even realized who I was sitting next to in the lab till I was already logged. The lightning last night wasn't the best with the dim emergency lights. My thought process as I sat down at a computer was this: Hey, a girl in the computer lab... a girl that I don't know... wait a second... By the time I was mentally cursing my luck, I had already logged in.

Then I figured it'd be better to get the jump on her before she did on me. Peering over, she was looking up something about DC comics. Somebody was a little too serious about the whole Central City vs. Kansas City thing. Then I realized she was on a university computer, which meant she had to have a student ID. I then decided it might be fun teasing her. Me and my big mouth.

Sure she ended up fixing my code. But she also ended up costing me one of my meals on my dining plan. Getting her food, was the first of her demands. And when I asked why I should comply, she threatened to go to my teacher and tell him that she wrote the code for me. Then when I pointed out she didn't know my teacher. She said it didn't matter, she could go to any teacher and report me. The sad thing is, given my usual effort at homework, they would probably believe her. And my mom wonders why I haven't brought 'some nice college girl' home yet. It's hard to do when all the girls you meet are more manipulative than nice.

So that's how I ended up in the Student Union with some girl I didn't know, but yet had paid for her supper. Like I said, manipulative.

As she finished off her second plate of food, I asked, "So, this means we're even right?"

The look she gave me caused me to groan inside. "Not yet. I also want a hot shower and a change of clothes."

Looking at her in disbelief, I responded, "You want me to let you use my shower and clothes?"

"Don't be such a perv. Do I look like I could fit into your clothes? Surely you're friends with some girls that will let me borrow their bathroom? Because boy bathrooms are just gross."

"What makes you think I have girl friends? I thought you said I didn't know how to flirt."

"You don't. But just because you don't know how to flirt, doesn't mean you don't know any girls. You're a guy, it's part of your DNA to notice girls."

I hated it when she was right, which was a lot, actually. When she was right, she would smirk at you, like she was better than you. It was annoying as hell, and I was starting to get sick of it. But since I wasn't that fond of going to jail for murder, I had no choice but to give in. So much for never cooperating with terrorists.

* * *

Suzy's POV

"You're from another world where the Justice League exists?"

That was his response when he demanded I tell him, "What my deal was with Central City". That and laughter.

I knew it sounded stupid, and if I were him, I would certainly not believe it. But that didn't stop it from hurting. And I'm not talking emotional hurt, but physical. Each laugh was like a punch to my stomach. My vision started to blur, and my legs grew weak.

He actually must of noticed, because he asked, "Are you okay? You don't look alright." Maybe he wasn't that much of a jerk after all. Or maybe he was just hoping I was sick enough to die so he didn't have to go through with his end of the deal.

Well whatever it was, was gone just as quick as it came. Except now he was the one with the pale face and wobbly knees.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

Instead of a reply, all I got was a finger pointing to something behind me. Confused, I turned around, only to look straight into Batman's face.

****Author's Note****

I would like to thank my reviewers: Loki's Son, AidenSurvival, and Fox Alder.

Next chapter will explain why Gardner freaked at Batman, and introduce a new character.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review.


	4. Technicalities

I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

**Technicalities**

Eugene's POV

Annie and Nikki managed to hold Gary off long enough for Batman to show up. After watching Suzy and the intruder vanish into thin air, I had waited about an hour before realizing they weren't coming back. And Gary was most likely going to kill me for losing his sister.

It took another hour to calm myself down and think of what to do next. I called Annie and told her what happened. She then contacted the League and Gary. Eventually we all agreed to meet at the apartment. At which time Gary threatened to pummel me into the ground.

But eventually Batman showed up, and I had to explain what happened for the fifth time. Unlike Gary, Batman didn't have to say anything to show his disapproval and anger. I could feel it radiating from every pore in his body. It was worse than the time he paid me a little visit after discovering that I had hacked into the Watchtower. He wasn't too happy discovering that somebody had managed to infiltrate his pride and joy.

"What did we talk about?" he growled menacingly.

"That I was to stop doing illegal activities, which I did. Technically building a device to travel to other dimensions isn't illegal," I pointed out. But I had a feeling it soon would be if Batman had his way after this escapade was over.

"Do you have another copy of the device?" he asked, after much silence. Even Gary had shut up, wondering what Batman was about to do me (I really don't want to guess at what he specifically wanted Batman to do to me).

"No," I said, shaking my head. "And even if I did, it wouldn't help. The device wasn't working for more than a couple seconds. I suppose it is possible that Suzy and the intruder managed to fix that issue in the scuffle though..."

"So, there's nothing we can do to get her back?" asked Annie, who had been extremely quiet this whole time.

"Um..." if I said no, I would be dead which would suck since I'm rather fond of being alive. Except when my life is being threatened.

Sensing my hesitation, Batman asked, "Do you know what universe the device sent them to?"

I nodded. "Unless they messed that up too, it should be the same."

After giving him the frequency vibration, I had expected him to whisk me off to the Batcave or wherever else he was going. He had mentioned something about having a portal of his own and I couldn't wait to see his version. I wouldn't have been any trouble. I mean, sure I would have asked a lot of questions and probably would have touched things I wasn't suppose to. But at the moment, anywhere else beat being stuck in the same room with Gary.

* * *

Suzy's POV

It took half an hour to calm him down after seeing Batman's face hovering in air. It didn't even last two seconds. One moment the face was there, the next it was gone, along with the hole. While he was freaking out about the incident, I relished in the comfort it brought me. Sure they must be having technical issues for me to still be here, but Eugene had at least fessed up to what happened (probably more out of fear for his life than concern for me). But it was something, and Batman of all people was working on my case. He might not have superpowers, but after everything I've heard (and had recently read) he was the one Leaguer you knew would get the job done. He was also probably the only one (with the exception of J'onn maybe) who could figure out how to get me back.

Then there was the whole, 'I'm not insane' thing. After spending almost a day in a world that was constantly saying mine didn't exist, I was wondering if it was all just a dream. Maybe. I wasn't that _convinced_ that it was all make believe, but it was still comforting to see the familiar cowl glaring back at me.

Not all of us were relieved. I supposed one of the benefits about my world is that you're used to weird shit happening. It gets to the point that seeing some super villain go stomping down the street after robbing a bank, would be no more different than noticing it was cloudy and might rain. Just another day. Some of us though, aren't that lucky to live in such a world. In fact, the jerk was on the ground, spazzing out-

* * *

"I was not spazzing out," interrupted Gardner.

I snorted. "Then what do you call curling up into a ball saying, 'there's no such thing as Batman, there's no such thing as Batman' over and over again?"

He continued denying it. "I only said it a couple times, and I was not curled up in a ball."

I snorted again.

Batman said nothing, simply looking forward, calm and unmoving, holding his hand in front of his chin as if he was deep in thought. We're not BFF's or anything, but sometimes I wonder if the mask was more to hide his emotions than his identity. I mean, at this point I had practically called him out on his identity, so he had to know that I knew. And given where Gardner grew up he obviously knew, and from what I had seen, Waller knew too. Which begged the question, why wear the mask, when everybody in the room knew who was under it. The obvious answer had to be he enjoyed people guessing what he was thinking.

"So what were you doing?" asked Gardner.

"I was trying to get Suzy back," he answered. "However, given the peculiarities of your world, it wouldn't allow the portal to stay open long enough for me to retrieve her."

"Hear that? Your world is strange which means you're strange," I said with a smirk.

"Still nowhere as crazy as yours."

"Ahem," said Waller while clearing her throat, "Why don't we get back to the story?"

Gardner then said it was his turn to speak. I was fine with that. I'd just correct his mistakes later.

* * *

Gardner's POV

I was not spazzing out, I was in shock. And yes, there's a difference.

It also didn't take half an hour, (five minutes max) before the shock subsided enough for me to speak again. "You're real? You're really from Central City and everything you said is real?"

She nodded and looked as if she was fighting back the words, 'told you so', but she still helped me up from off the sidewalk.

"So, I guess this means I really do owe you a shower and some clothes." Before she could make some smart alec comment, I spoke again. "But first there's something else we need to do."

"Oh yeah, what's that?"

"You can call me Gardner," I said. If everything she said was true, then we were probably going to be stuck with each other for a while, and names would probably help with the situation. I couldn't keep calling her the girl, and who knows what she had been calling me (I would later learn it was 'the jerk' but for that moment I was happier being ignorant).

Hesitant, she finally said, "Suzy. Suzy Smith."

I started snickering. "Not the most original with names in your world, are you?"

She just glared. So much for the start of a beautiful friendship...

* * *

"Hello Ashley," greeted the blonde at the door, also known as Angela, my first roommate. You heard correctly, my first roommate was a girl.

Suzy looked at me confused. "I thought you said your name was Gardner."

Before I could say anything Angela, butted in. "That's his last name, his first is Ashley."

I frowned, all my friends called me by my last name so why couldn't she? Oh, yeah, because she was a bitch. Her looks may live up to her name, but she's more of a devil than an angel, which is also why she's such a blast to hang out. Like the one time freshmen year she managed to convince the stoner kid on first floor to let her give him a make-over, and wear a mini-skirt. The best part was the next day, he didn't remember a thing. Angela might make your life miserable sometimes, but if anyone else touched you, she'd make their life hell. A weird friendship yes, but it worked just the same.

Suzy was snickering, "You have a girl's name?"

I sighed, I hated explaining this. "It's a family name, and it wasn't until the 1960's did it become more popular as a girl's name."

"So you have a girl's name?"

Angela joined in laughing. "It gets better. The school thought there was an error with with sex information since it clashed with his name, and placed him with me as his roommate freshmen year. You should have seen his face, first it was horror at being mistaken for a girl, then awe at living with well, me. He even tried to convince housing he was just a manly looking girl in order for him to stay."

This caused Suzy to laugh harder, and I was starting to get the sinking feeling that putting these two together may not have been the brightest idea I ever had. "You were that desperate, huh?"

"It gets, better though," Angela said between snickers. "He used to go by Ash when he was younger, but then Pokemon came out, and kids kept asking him what happened to pikachu."

Sure enough, Suzy was almost on the floor at this point, doubled over in laughter. She looked up at me and managed to get out, "So ten years later, and you still haven't caught them all, huh?"

Ignoring her and Angela's laughter, I said, "Look, as much as I love being embarrassed, I am here for a reason."

"Wow, your day must have been bad for you to want to get drunk on a Thursday," said Angela. Did I mention her room was known as the party room? Well, it's for a very good reason. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that out loud...

Anyway, I responded, "I'm not here to get drunk," though, given the last couple hours it certainly couldn't hurt things, "Suzy here," I paused while trying to come up with a believable lie. "Went to my high school and her roommate kicked her out."

By this point Suzy had stopped laughing, and had caught on to what I was doing. "Yeah, she's a crazy one. Once, she totaled my car because she though it was ugly."

I didn't know whether or not that was true (I would later find out it was), but Angela saw where the conversation was going. "And you want me to give her a place to crash?"

"Yeah," I admitted.

"Sure. Just one question. If you went to the same high school, how does she not know your first name?"

Damn, forget that Angela was smart enough to notice that wrinkle. Suzy meanwhile spoke up before I could. "Rumor has it that his mom paid a special visit to the principal on the first day of class. We always thought it was to get him out of gym class, but guess we know the real reason, because all the teachers always referred to him as Gardner. Even when he graduated, they just said Gardner."

Angela started laughing. "Aw, little Ashley's mommy to the rescue." The sad thing was, my mother would actually do it too and Angela knew it.

"So mind if I shower, and borrow some clothes?" asked Suzy.

"Anyone who enjoys making fun of Ashley, is a friend of mine. Besides, you can tell me all the embarrassing things he did in high school."

"Sounds like fun," said Suzy as she walked in the door.

I moved to follow her, but Angela blocked my way. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Sorry, girl's night only," added Suzy. "Though with your name, you could come in."

"Of course, it would mean admitting you are a girl, and giving me reason to mock you for the rest of your life," finished Angela.

I walked away in defeat. No need to give Angela even more ammunition than she already had. It was also becoming quickly apparent that deciding to introduce those two was one of my worst ideas to date.

****Author's Note****

Thanks goes to AidenSurvival, Loki's Son, a triple thanks to Jana Girl123, monkey see and Fox Alder for reviewing.

So Gardner's name is really Ashley. And that stoner story? Actually happened a couple years ago and it was hilarious to watch. One more reason not to do drugs.

Next chapter will feature some fun girl bonding time between Suzy and Angela. At the end you'll learn a bit more about Annie's author.

Hoped you enjoyed this chapter, and don't forget to review!


	5. Learning Can Be Fun

I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

**Learning Can Be Fun**

I've had girlfriends before, but none like Angela. Sara was great if you wanted to party and relax, and Annie was great if you wanted to act like a little kid again. Angela was all of that combined, plus some. If we had met in my world under different circumstances, I doubt we would bonded like we did. Except we both had something in common: annoying Gardner. Me, because of how jerky he had been, and her because she found it amusing. When I later asked Gardner why he hung out with her, he said it was because she was a lot of fun when she wasn't messing with you, and it was better to have her on your side than against. Which I find myself easily agreeing with.

I hadn't even been out of the shower for very long before she bounced me for more info. "So what's your story really? Did Gardner knock you up and your parents kick you out? You don't seem like his type, but I suppose if you were drunk at the time..."

"What's wrong with my story exactly?" I asked curious.

"Because Gardner thinks all girls are 'manipulative bitches' and for him to want to help you, he must of screwed up big time."

That made sense. I would be suspicious of my story too, honestly. "Well, I could tell you the truth, but it's going to sound crazy."

"Please," she said dismissing me, "I've dated crazy, seen crazy and according to some am crazy. Now spill." She sat Indian-style on her bed and hugged her pillow to her chest, eager to hear whatever crazy story I had in store.

When I was done telling her I expected her to mock me, or laugh like Gardner did. She didn't; instead she looked at me with awe on her face. "If Gardner is screwing with me, I'll kill him, but if what you say is true..." she got up and unlocked the bottom drawer in her desk. After shuffling through some binders, she pulled out a big green one that you put CDs in, and started to unzip it.

"Despite all the crap I give him, Gardner really is a great friend. He could have gotten me back so many times, but he just takes it, says I remind him of his little sister. What I'm about to show you is just between us, if you tell anybody, I will kill you, and I'm not joking." For some reason, I could tell she was serious.

Continuing, she said, "On move-in day, after the whole, 'you're not a girl' settled down, Gardner was kind enough to help me and my parents to unpack while his mom went to go yell at housing. He saw the contents of this binder and instead of making fun of me, asked who I thought the better Batman was."

"Why would he make fun of you?"

"Look at me. How many hot blondes do you know, that are also comic book fans?"

More than she knew. Annie, for one, though she was more of a fan of the League, than comics. There were a couple others, but they were still few. I guess I got her point though. It'd be like Eugene ever telling people I was still a Pokemon fan. (On the subject of embarrassing things, if anybody in this room repeats that, I'll deny it. And if this conversation is being recorded I want those parts skipped over like Nixon's).

So Angela spread open the binder on her bed and let me flip through it. From what I could tell it contained just about every series I had read about previously that day in the computer lab, including mine.

"Mind if we watch some of these?" I asked, fingering some of them.

"Sure," she smiled. "My roommate is always at the library studying, or a friend's house. She once made the mistake of borrowing my sweater without asking and she's been afraid of me ever since."

I bought that. Like I said, Angela gave off this fun girl vibe, but she also had this, 'mess with me and I'll knife you in your sleep' vibe too. She was either going to be the next president of the United States, or the next big time serial killer. And for some reason, I was completely cool with both possibilities.

* * *

We spent the rest of night going through her binder watching stuff. I could barely get through one episode of the old school Batman show, let alone the Superfriends show. The bad guys wore Henchmen shirts, and the plots were laughable. The Joker would be embarrassed at his counter part, though he might be impressed by the Heath Ledger guy. And what was up with all the 'BANG' 'POW' stuff? And all the labeling? Seriously Batman, if you could sue for libel or slander against these people, I would. They make you look like a fruitcake. Though, the Justice League Unlimited show was better. I particularly enjoyed the 'This Little Piggy' episode.

(Batman didn't seem to find any of this funny, while Waller looked at him as if she was seeing him in a new light, and was trying to fight back laughter. Gardner was just sitting there chuckling to himself as he got all my references. Eventually Batman insisted that I continue and skip the rest of what I saw.)

The next day, Friday, Angela left for class and left me to continue going through her binder of DVD's with the stern warning, 'scratch one, and you're done'. I don't know if she meant done with watching them, or done with life, but I still took extra care with them, not eager to find out.

When she came back at lunch she brought me a turkey sandwich from the cafeteria. "So what are you doing for break?"

"Break?" I asked, my mouth full of food.

"You know, Thanksgiving break, where we're all booted from the dorms to supposedly go home to our families."

How had I forgotten Thanksgiving break? I had been looking forward to it for weeks, but with everything going on it slipped my mind that it would happen here as well. Wait. If it was happening here, then it was happening back home, and my mom would freak if I wasn't home for Thanksgiving if she wasn't already freaking out. She would call in the army and national guard, and if Eugene thought he had just Gary to worry about, he was dead wrong.

My mom was usually all nice and sweet, even if she was interrogating you. This was the case unless one of her children was being threatened. In that instance she would act like a mama bear, attacking anyone who approached her cubs, or at least that's how my dad put it. It'd take everything the League had to keep her from storming the WatchTower (and I'm honestly surprised she didn't), demanding where her daughter was, and wanting to know what they were going to do about it. I hoped Gary would grab footage if that was case. Surely the League had to have cameras on the WatchTower recording everything, especially since the Stuart incident.

The thought of my mom and family hit a nerve though. Up to then, I hadn't thought much about them, assuming I wouldn't be gone long enough for them to miss me. But if Batman was having trouble reaching this world just for a second, I might be gone for longer than I thought.

Angela seemed to have picked up on the whole nerve thing, because she said, "Sorry, it's just housing won't let you stay here, and I'm mild compared to the rest of my family."

"She's right," said a voice from the door that belonged to Gardner. "She's the sane one of the group and that's saying something."

Angela stuck out her tongue at him. "Guess what Gardner? Your mom is going to be very thankful this Thanksgiving."

"Why's that?" he asked.

"Because this year you're going to bring a girl home." Seeing the look of confusion mixed with horror on his face she continued, "What else are you going to do with Suzy, she has no place else to go over break. And if you even think about shoving her off on somebody else, I'll tell Suzy about the lake incident."

"Lake incident?" That sounded promising.

Whatever it was, I wasn't about to find out anytime soon. "Fine," agreed Gardner, rather grudgingly I noted. "You promised not to say a word though."

"And I'll keep my promise as long as you promise to watch after Suzy. She's my newest friend after all," said Angela as she wrapped an arm around me.

For some reason, that sounded like something Annie would do. Annie. It was odd, but I missed her too. She had calmed down in the past year, but she still could be a bit naive or blonde at times. But I was also suddenly understanding just how strong of a person she really was. She had entered a strange world thinking she knew everything, when she didn't, not having anything to call her own or knowing anybody. But she had survived and adapted, and even thrived in that world.

And here I was in the same situation. In a world that was similar to my own, but different. Here people only flew in airplanes, being dropped into a radioactive batch of something would kill you, villains could win, and the only alien life that had been discovered were microorganisms. I knew nobody, had nothing but my clothes really, and was dependent on others. It could be worse, but it still sucked, and it took a lot of concentration not to sit around moping. Perhaps that's why I was so hard on Gardner, he was my comic relief in a world that didn't have Annie. I made a mental note if I ever got back to my world, to let her know that I never appreciated just how much she had to put up with during her days as a Sue.

* * *

As I got into Gardner's car, I couldn't help but wonder if it was a universal thing for guys to be pigs. His car was just as cluttered with junk and trash as Gary's was, and he didn't even seem to care. In fact, he seemed to enjoy the look of disgust on my face as I threw the junk that was up front to the back and sat down.

Before I left, Angela threatened Gardner one last time and gave me a change of clothes and some other essentials. Gardner didn't say much, just that he lived about two hours away. In fact, most of the car ride passed in silence, with the radio playing and the occasional news blurb about some government break-in. Until Gardner asked, "Did your roommate really destroy your car because she thought it was ugly?"

"Well, she was a Sue at the time, and figured it would be better to land on my car since it was in horrible shape rather than the 'cute bug' next to it."

"A Sue?"

Really, he didn't know what a Sue was? "You know, Sue, Mary-Sue. Obnoxiously perfect original character created by thirteen year-old girls as a blatant self insert. She's been deSued for about a year now, and goes by the name of Annie. But her first name was such a Sue name. Marianna Aurora Rhea Yew Sapphire-"

"Utopia Earthchild?" finished Gardner for me.

"How did you know that?" I asked, suddenly wary. I mean, what was the chance that a guy would know Annie's full name?

"Because I know her author," he said slowly, "and she's not thirteen, she's eleven."

****Author's Note****

I would like to thank Jana Girl123, AwkwardedOut, Fox Alder, and Loki's Son for reviewing. Reviews are always nice to receive.

Next chapter you'll finally get to meet Annie's author.

Thanks for reading, and if ou can leave a review.


	6. Meeting Annie's Author

I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

**Meeting Annie's Author**

I know that Eugene created the device to reunite Annie with her creator, but really, what were the odds that the jerk would turn out to be her brother? Out of all the people I could have met, I just had to meet _her_ brother? The only explanation were the Rules. (Later, according to Eugene it was actually due to the fact that he made the device focus on reuniting Annie with her author, but may have gotten bumped in the struggle so it targeted Gardner instead. I still blame the Rules.)

And okay, so she was actually eleven, (or ten when she wrote Annie), and not thirteen, but that still didn't excuse her writing such a character. And it certainly didn't excuse Gardner (who was forced to edit the story) from telling it was great and allowing her to post it in the first place. He should definitely have known better, but claimed he didn't want to crush her feelings. Lame.

So after talking about all that, and explaining my side of dealing with Annie, we then had a 'chicken or the egg' discussion. Basically, did Annie exist in my world first and did his sister (who I learned was named a normal name, Lucy) pick up on her, or did Lucy create Annie and as a result she then showed up in my world? In the end we agreed that the latter made the most since. It wouldn't be till later that we would learn things didn't quite work that easily.

Eventually we arrived to his house, which was a modest bungalow that could have passed in my own neighborhood. By then I was eager to meet Annie's creator and give her a piece of my mind, age be damned. Such a person had to be stopped and who knew how many Sues she had already gone on to write.

I wasn't even out of the car before a blur came out of the door and ran into Gardner's arms, which were already full with unloading his stuff. While Gardner's hair was more of a dark brown that was cut short, her's was a frizzy mass of ginger curls. I consider my hair auburnish, but her's was full red ginger. Didn't excuse her behavior, but it certainly gave her some sympathy. Her face was covered in freckles, and behind her glasses I could see a familiar pair of hazel eyes.

"You're here, you're here!" she squealed rather excitedly in Gardner's arms.

Gardner managed to get a hand free enough to ruffle her curls. "Well of course I'm here squirt. Great food, free laundry, my own room. Almost enough for me to come home more often."

"Lucy," cried a voice from inside the house, which I assumed was coming from his mom. I was proven right when the front opened to reveal a women with the same mass of ginger curls as Lucy's. Her face lit up as her eyes landed on Gardner. Then she saw me and said, "You brought a girl home. I thought they were all manipulative."

He smiled. "They all are. This here is Suzy, Angela manipulated me into bringing her home since she has nowhere else to for the break."

His mom smiled back since she evidently knew Angela quite well. Then she turned her attention to me. "We usually have a small Thanksgiving, but we're more than happy to have you join us Suzy."

She seemed nice, not unlike my own mom. The thought of my mom and dad then sent a pang of homesickness through me. I couldn't remember ever not being with them on a major holiday. But ever the polite daughter like my mom raised me (hey, I can be polite if I want to be. The key word there is want) I responded, "Thanks, it's great being here, Mrs. Gardner."

"Call me Carol. Well don't just stand there, come on in out of the cold."

* * *

The house was small, but was well decorated so the house felt bigger than it actually looked. In order to celebrate Gardner's homecoming (and the fact that he brought a GIRL home) his mom ordered pizza for all of us. Over supper Gardner told her some story about how I was fighting with my family and needed somewhere to crash for the break. She gave me a lecture of how family should be valued, and I should give them a second chance blah blah blah. If I could be home, I would, and didn't need to be reminded of it. Since I couldn't admit the truth, I instead said I'd consider her advice and the conversation thankfully turned toward other topics.

Once done with supper, his mom made the move to start cleaning up so I went to help her. I was stopped by a mass of curls tugging on my arm. "Come on, I'll show you the house, and you can see my room."

I was about to object, but then Gardner's mom spoke out from the kitchen. "You go with Lucy, since you'll be rooming with her. Ashley can help me with the dishes."

I snickered; his mom called him Ashley. My snicker was met with a glare that could rival one of my own. "Not one word," he said.

Before I could respond, I felt my arm once more being tugged on. "Come on, it's this way," Lucy kept saying as she dragged me down a skinny hallway filled with various doors. The far left door she finally stopped at and opened to reveal her room.

I guess I had expected her room to be painted Barbie pink; full of stuffed animals and rainbows and unicorns, and other various Sue stuff. Instead it was covered in posters. Posters of superheroes from my world. Wonder Woman, Batman, the Flash, Superman and more. If there was a superhero that existed in my world, they were on a poster somewhere in the room. To go with the posters were figurines and other DC merchandise. One corner had a bookcase that was dedicated to comic books which were in some protective plastic thingies that I don't know the name of. In all honesty the bedroom looked like it belonged to a comic nerd who lived in his parents basement rather than a pre-teen girl.

Said girl had plopped on her bed and was watching as I took in her room. "You like it? A lot of this stuff belonged to my dad who gave it to Gardner who gave it to me."

I had noticed Gardner's dad was absent and that there had been no mention of him at dinner. Not wanting to pry, I let it go. But since she had brought it up... "What happened to your dad?" I asked, sitting on top of the Wonder Woman comforter.

"He died four years ago," she began, and her voice got quiet. "He was a cop and there was a robbery..."

Oh. Maybe I shouldn't have pried, I'm not good at dealing with sappiness. Time for a distraction. "So Gardner says that you write."

She shrugged. "I used to, but I wasn't very good at it. I didn't get many reviews and nobody seemed to like my stories." Seeing my confused face she explained, "I wrote fanfiction."

Ah, fanfiction, the source of Annie's existence. No doubt Annie's character was the reason for Lucy's lack of reviews. By the sound of it she thankfully hadn't written anything since, but in this case I'd rather be safe than sorry. She wasn't about to release any more Sues in my world (or others) if I could help it.

"You know," I started off, "I read a little of what you wrote."

"Really?" she asked, looking at me from under her mop of hair.

No, not really. But I had lived with her character for over a year so it still counted. Now came the hard part: telling her to never write again.

"Yeah, it... had potential," I said, wimping out. So much for me telling her off. I can be such a softie at times (stop snickering Gardner, it's not that funny). "It's just your main character, Marianna, was just really annoying and unrealistic."

When I had mentioned the story had potential, Lucy had brightened up. Then I mentioned Annie, or as she knew her, Marianna, and she became gloomy again.

"That's what the few reviewers said. They called her a Sue."

"Well she was a Sue. Super beautiful, perfect, every power imaginable, everybody loved her. I mean, how would you react if you met somebody as perfect as her in real life? I know I would be fighting back the urge to strangle her within the first couple minutes of meeting her." And fighting that urge had been really hard too. Really really really _really_ hard. So instead I slapped her that once to relieve the tension.

To my surprise, she wasn't insulted by my reaction to her character, she just giggled. "I guess she would be kind of annoying."

"Kind of? Try mega super ultra annoying to the infinity power." Seeing the confused look on her face I added, "My roommate has a personality that reminds me of Marianna."

"Oh."

Awkward silence followed that reveal, and I was quickly remembering that I suck at interacting with kids which was why I tried to usually avoid them. They're naive and annoying like Annie used to be, except you can't be too sarcastic or mean to them since they'll go running to their mommies. Wimps.

I could have let the conversation died, but there was something that I really wanted to know. Something that had been bothering me for a while, and now was the perfect time to ask it.

"So if you knew she was so annoying and a Sue, why did you create her like that?"

"I don't know... I just thought it'd be cool to be pretty, popular, and having a lot of powers so no innocent people would ever get hurt."

At first that sentence sounded so Sueish that I wanted to roll my eyes; what a lame excuse for the creation of a Sue. Except... there was more to it, but I didn't know what. Then I figured it out. The only reason I didn't figure it out earlier was because I didn't really care that much. I saw Lucy as the Sue author, not an actual person and had judged her accordingly. Just like I had once saw Annie as the Sue, and not as an actual person until she pulled a Casper on me. Apparently that little lesson hadn't stuck and I was now being forced to learn it again.

Basically what I had missed were some subtle clues pointing to Lucy having issues that she didn't realize she had, and I didn't feel like dealing with. Ginger hair, glasses, freckles, comic book nerd, wanting to be pretty and popular, daddy issues. My guess was that she didn't have many, if any, girl friends at school, and was probably picked on. Add in her dad being defenseless in the face of danger, and you had the perfect recipe for a Sue author. A young girl who felt like she didn't quite fit in at school, so she writes a character that is everything she wants to be. Beautiful, popular, perky, and having every power imaginable to protect the ones they loved.

Now, with that revelation I could have done something. Told her things would get better, all the girls she wanted to be friends with were bitches who would end up being a teenage mother, having an eating disorder, cheating husband, or a combination of all three. That's what a nice caring sympathetic person would do. I'm not that person. So I just let the conversation die. I'd tell Gardner about her issues and let him deal with them.

However the dead conversation was followed by awkward silence that was starting to get to me. "So you like the Justice League. Who's your favorite hero?"

Her face lit up, very similar to Annie's. "Wonder Woman, but I also like the Question, and Batman, and Flash, and J'onn, and Huntress." So pretty much every single one of them.

Gardner then knocked on the door entered the room then, and I was grateful for his presence (a first). "Everything going okay?"

No, everything was not going okay, I wanted to say. Except I didn't. Lucy answered for me. "Yep. Is Suzy coming to KlingCon with us?"

While I wondered what KlingCon was, Gardner's face turned an embarrassing shade of pink.

"You forgot didn't you?" said his sister accusingly.

"I did not forget, I just didn't think Suzy would be interested in that sort of thing." In other words, he forgot.

"Actually it sounds interesting, what is it?" I asked, grinning on, while Gardner looked like he wanted to kill me.

Oblivious to me and Gardner, his sister explained. "KlingCon is like ComicCon, except smaller. Our dad used to take us when we were younger, but now Ashley takes me." I smirked. His sister and his mother called him Ashley, how cute. Wait, she didn't call him Ashley a while ago, just when he was present. Maybe she wasn't as bad as I originally thought.

"Count me in," I said knowing it would bother Gardner. He was probably hoping he would just be able to dump me once he got home, but I wasn't going to let him have it that easy. Then to further irk him I added, "Sounds like fun, _Ashley_."

****Author's Note****

Thanks goes to Loki's Son, AidenSurvival, and Fox Alder for reviewing.

When it came to the reasons behind Annie's creation, I wanted them to be realistic and believable. I knew that Suzy and maybe some readers might bash her author due to how annoying Sues are, so I wanted to show the reasons why I believe so many of them are created. When I was younger, around Lucy's age, the majority of the stories I came up with featured Sue characters or were terribly cliched. Thankfully I never got very far in those stories or forced anybody to read them. My reasons were similar to Lucy's and also due to my inexperience as a writer. In a weird way those stories actually helped me improve my writing. Anyway, I hope Lucy comes across as realistic for a Sue writer.

Enough of that. I'm excited about the next chapter since a lot of stuff happens in it. A cameo from a one-shot of mine, Angela makes an appearance, Suzy makes an interesting discovery, and the overall plot is back on track. Everything has slowly been building up, but after the next chapter things start happening fast.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review!


	7. Age of the Geek, Baby

I do not own the rights to the Justice League. Or Leverage. Also, if I screwed up how conventions work, please forgive me since I've never been to one.

**Age of the Geek, Baby**

Suzy's POV

I knew of conventions, but had never actually been to one myself, so KlingCon was quite the experience. According to Gardner, KlingCon was originally started by a bunch of Trekkies wanting their own convention. Over time it grew and expanded to include other fandoms. It was nowhere as big as Comic-Con, but still big enough to attract a decent crowd. Apparently the highlight every year was the huge costume contest. And as you might guess, Gardner and Lucy naturally dressed up as well.

I was quite surprised that after his face to face encounter with the Dark Knight, Gardner still had the nerve to go as him, with Lucy going as Batgirl. Lucy tried her best to get me to join them as Wonder Woman with a spare costume her mother once were, but since she didn't have anything to blackmail or negotiate with, it didn't happen. While they were dressed up, I wore my CCU hoodie and a pair of jeans; I wasn't about to look like a dork if I could help it. Except, wearing the jeans and hoodie gave me a lot more attention than if I had worn the Wonder Woman costume. I hate irony.

From the moment we entered the convention place, I kept noticing people looking at me from out of the corner of my eye. At first I thought they were just looking at Gardner and Lucy in their costumes, but then people started coming up to me and telling me how awesome my costume was. One black guy who wasn't wearing a costume (though you could tell he wanted to), had come up to me and said, "Damn, your costume is awesome. You got the hair, the hoodie, everything."

Tired of not knowing what the big deal was I decided to ask him, but did so in a way that didn't make me look like an idiot. "Thanks," I said and grabbed Gardner. "This is my friend who doesn't get who I'm dressed as."

Gardner had a dumbfounded look on his face (as usual) while the other guy was more than happy to explain. "Man, how can you not know who she is? She's Suzy, from the webcomic The Trouble With Sues."

Before I could ask him more about this webcomic, some bulky looking guy with long hair came by and grabbed him. "Stop being such a geek, we have a job to do."

As he was dragged away, I heard the guy reply, "How many times do I have to tell you? It's the age of the geek, baby. Age of the geek. Hey, did I ever tell you about the time I hacked the WatchTower?"

* * *

After he left I turned to Lucy. "If you're such a comic fan, how come you didn't know about this?"

"I'm eleven. My mom controls what websites I can go to," she said like I was too stupid to figure that out on my own. Any sympathy I had for from last night was disappearing rather quickly.

Remembering some of the stories I've read on fanfiction I responded, "Your mom lets you visit fanfiction websites, but not a comics site? Nice parenting."

"I don't get to read anything with higher than a T rating."

"Ah-hem," interrupted Gardner. Good thing too because his sister was starting to get on my nerves; a trait that she had apparently passed on to Annie.

I crossed my arms and glared at him. "Fine. Is there a computer nearby? I want to check this webcomic out."

"Really? That's your first instinct?" asked Gardner.

"What's wrong with it?"

"What about the chicken or egg discussion we had the other day? I'm pretty sure you existed before the webcomic did."

He had me there. Up to that point we assumed that what was created in his world, appeared in mine. Story-lines, characters, (and Sues) started off in Gardner's world and ended up in mine. But I was pretty sure I didn't just pop into existence. I had memories, I was real. According to Annie she had a back story, but no real memories or evidence. More like she had the knowledge of what her past was suppose to be, but nothing to prove. I had plenty. A birth certificate, graduation diploma, driver's license, family photos, a medical record. Some author couldn't have come up with all that on their own.

"It would have to work both ways, wouldn't it? Lucy is definitely Annie's creator, and I'm pretty sure she can't have two. So the only reasonable explanation would be that Annie and I existed in my world, and somebody here was influenced by it enough to create the webcomic," I said after some thought.

"Weird. Plausible, but weird. Hey, where's Lucy?"

* * *

Gardner's POV

I know it looks bad losing one's little sister at a crowded place. But Suzy had distracted me with her webcomic thing. The idea that the link between worlds went both ways instead of just one was intriguing, especially after what we had talked about the other day. Plus the chance to see Suzy in possible embarrassing situations sounded really good at the moment. Who knew what fun things that webcomic might hold?

So while we were talking, Lucy slipped away. And she didn't get lost, what happened was much worse.

Suzy and I were debating what to do next when I felt a sharp pang in the back of my head. "What the hell?" I muttered, while Suzy started to laugh. Turning around I saw why. Smiling with a mace in her hand was Angela. Next to her was Lucy. Like I said, worst than getting lost.

"What are you doing here?" asked Suzy.

"I live about an hour away, do you really think I would miss KlingCon?" answered Angela. She then hit me on the head again.

"Can I try?" Lucy asked, looking at Angela.

"Me next!" cried Suzy.

I rubbed my right hand over the back of my head to see if it was bleeding. "What is with you three enjoying my pain? And why are you dressed as Hawkgirl?"

"You're just so cute when you're in pain," answered Angela as she tapped my nose with her mace. "And why can't I be Hawkgirl? Just because I'm blond and hot I have to be a character that fits that description like Supergirl or Black Canary? Supergirl is way overdone like Wonder Woman, and I don't want to look like a hooker in fish nets."

"Not to mention Hawkgirl has a mace that you can hit people with," pointed out Suzy.

"There is that too," agreed Angela.

"What do fish nets have to do with looking like a hooker?" piped up Lucy, who had been mostly quiet till that point.

Suzy and Angela both snickered and I just groaned. The Injustice League seriously had nothing on these three.

Trying to change the subject I said, "Angela, if your such a fan of the Justice League, why didn't you mention Suzy's similarity to a certain webcomic?"

"I knew her story sounded familar! Don't give me that look, Gardner. I read the comic a couple months ago and like reading the updates all at once."

"Whose's story?" asked Lucy again, trying to figure out what we were talking about.

"Oh look the costume contest is about to start, let's go enter," I said before anybody could explain to Lucy what was going on. I didn't know how she would react to the news about Annie. And I didn't want to give Angela anymore chances to hit me with that mace.

* * *

Suzy's POV

That night, much to my dismay, Gardner and Lucy were gathered around the T.V. watching the local news. Not because they were interested in what was going on in the world, but more to do with the fact they wanted to rewatch my fail interview.

When Gardner had suggested that we entered the costume contest, I was hesitant. I don't like being the center of attention. One on one with people I'm fine with. It's just when those one or two people turns into a massive crowd of people all looking at me, do I start freaking out. What little voice I have cracks and I get a deer-caught-in-the-headlights-look. Angela assured me that there were so many people entering, I probably wouldn't last that long. She was wrong. Very wrong.

There were a couple different categories. Best Judged, Most Creative, and Most Accurate were all judged by a panel of judges. The last category, Fan Favorite was judged by the crowd of people watching the contest. Guess which I won.

I did get a trophy and some much needed cash (which I used to buy myself a Marvel t-shirt just to piss Gardner off. I don't ever remember signing a DC exclusive contract), but I also got a boatload of unwanted attention. People kept coming up to me asking for autographs and pictures. By nature I'm not that much of a people person. When you combine that with my distaste for being the center of attention, I quickly reached my limit and was getting close to hurting somebody.

Then the news crew had shown up and thought it'd be fun to interview me. Afterwards, Gardner had fun teasing me. The few words that I had managed to get out were mumbled with one clear phrase. The phrase had quickly become a favorite of Gardner's. For the sake of my sanity I'm not going to mention it. Just like I never mentioned my Halloween costume from last year.

While Gardner and Lucy were watching the news, I helped their mother wash the the plates in the kitchen so I could avoid the interview.

"It was a nice thing you did by going with them to the convention," she said as she handed me a plate to dry.

"It was fun," I replied non-nonchalant like. It really was fun, except for the interview and costume contest part.

She dried her hands on a dish rag with a faded watermelon print and looked at me. "Do you realize that you're the first friend Ashley's ever brought home? He has a hard time letting people in since his father died. He much rather not get involved with people or care."

What she said certainly explained why he ran away from me that first night. I thought it had to do with the fact that he was an uncaring jerk. Instead it was due to his tragic past causing him not to want to get close to anybody, or something like that. On the inside I grinned; blackmail's awesome when it's not being used against you.

Still. "At school I noticed he hung out with people. How can he be so anti-social then?"

"I never said he was anti-social, just that he doesn't allow people to really get all that close to him. There's a reason why most of his so-called friends are idiots, crazies and drunks, excluding you of course."

Even with that last bit, I couldn't help but feel that Gardner's mom had just slammed me. I would normally be insulted by such a comment, but my respect for her just increased. Up to that point I had assumed she was Little Miss Homemaker. It was exciting to learn that she had a dark side, similar to that of my own mother. And I liked it.

"It's not just Ashley's who's had the hard time, but so has Lucy. She doesn't have many friends at school, or positive role models for her to look up to. So I appreciate you taking her under your wing."

Her dark side was starting to get annoying. I assume by positive role model she meant Angela was out due to her crazy/drunk nature. Angela's certainly not an idiot, so I had narrowed it down to the other two traits as the reason Gardner supposedly hung out with her (at least, according to his mother). Apparently she knew that Lucy had hung out with Angela today and was subtlety hinting that I should hang out with Lucy instead. Like that would happen. Why would I willingly try to hang out with a pre-teen girl who wrote Sues and clearly had self-esteem issues? (Shut up Gardner. For her to write a Sue in the first place screams she has to have some kind of issues which I've already established. With a little counseling and some time she'll be fine.)

Trying to steer the conversation somewhere other than me and Lucy becoming BFF's, I said, "Lucy said that he died four years ago. How can she and Gardner still have so many issues?"

"Have you ever had a really close relative or friend die?"

"Um... does my grandma count?"

She sighed. "Evidently not. If it did you would know that grief is a process that takes a while and varies from person to person. You probably know that my husband was a huge DC fan. In this house, we had a certain M-word that was banned. He shared that passion with Ashley and Lucy both. Instead of reading them fairy tales when they were small, he read them the latest Batman or Superman issue." She smiled at the memory and continued. "When he died, Ashley wanted nothing to do with his father's passion anymore. Lucy meanwhile clung to it with everything she had."

Note to self, don't wear the Marvel shirt where she could see it. Unsure of what else to say, I asked, "And you?"

With a grim smile she replied, "I prayed for the courage to go on for the sake of my two kids and try to take it one day at a time."

I then decided I wanted the awkward conversation to end. While the subject of her husband's death was sad and depressing, the sympathy I was starting to have for Lucy and Gardner was becoming worse and worse to deal it. My life was so much simpler when he was the rude jerk who ignored me, and she was the crazy Sue writer. Now that they had backgrounds and depth and had ceased to be stereotypes, I was starting to care about them. FML.

* * *

I joined Lucy and Gardner in the middle of a report detailing the recent break-ins into several high security government buildings where military equipment had been stolen. During the most recent one, the suspect's face had finally been captured on camera. Desperate to make an I.D., the government had released the photo to the public.

Right after that was the local news, including my fail interview. As expected Gardner and Lucy burst into laughter at the phrase. I guess I had missed an insult or something from Gardner because I felt a sharp pain in my side. He had elbowed me to get my attention.

"Earth to Suzy. I just insulted you and you didn't react. What's the matter? Having horrific flashbacks?"

I shook my head. "That was the guy. The guy in the photo was the one who stole Eugene's device."

I had almost given up hope of ever finding him since I really didn't know all that much about him. But there he was on the news. Though, in the end I didn't have to find him. He found me.

****Author's Note****

Thanks to Loki's Son and Jana Girl123 for reviews.

And we're back to the main plot. Next chapter will be completely different since it will feature everything as a third person perspective, with no commentary from Suzy or Gardner. It'll show stuff that's going on that they have no knowledge of, but you as a reader should since it'll make the next couple chapters make more sense.

I wanted to say a couple things about this chapter. First, the webcomic idea. I thought it'd be awesome if Suzy had to deal with the notion that she was famous for the Annie situation. In the last chapter of The Trouble With Sues, she did address the audience showing that she was aware of the possibility that somebody was following along, now she'll have to deal with the reality. I choose to make it a webcomic for a couple reasons. I thought Suzy might be more recognizable from a picture vs. a fanfic. I also wanted to pay a bit of homage to the awesome webcomic Ensign Sue Must Die, which helped inspire Annie and her Sueness. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend looking it up since it deals with a lot of the classic Sue traits.

Also did you catch the bit from Hacker? I thought it would be a fun bonus to add in this chapter.


	8. Now For Something Completely Different

I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

**And Now For Something Completely Different**

In a typical suite, in a typical hotel, in a typical suburb outside Kansas City, an atypical scene was occurring.

"You idiot! How could you let yourself be caught on camera? First the girl, now this."

The idiot, wasn't really an idiot. He was actually a good guy that had a horrible case of bad luck. Not that it mattered to his boss. His actual name (Louie), age (27), and the fact that he was aspiring to be chef didn't matter to his boss at all. What mattered was that in the span of a few days he had screwed up big time. First, he had jumbled getting the device by bringing a girl along and letting her get away. Then he had went and let his face be captured on camera while doing his job.

"What does it matter? It's not like they know us here," said a guy in the corner. Louie actually considered him a good friend, despite only knowing each other for a couple days. But like Louie, he didn't matter to the boss either. The other two guys in the room just laughed, enjoying Louie being berated for his mistakes by their boss.

The boss in question ran his fingers through his hair. While it was true the authorities wouldn't be able to identify the idiot since he technically never existed in this world, it still wasn't great. The authorities were smarter than he initially thought, and it was getting harder to pull off each theft. No matter. He was almost done here anyway.

He was just about to berate the idiot again (he couldn't be bothered to remember the idiot's actual name) when the idiot spoke.

"That's her," he said excitedly, pointing at the TV. "That's the girl!"

His boss looked at the girl on the TV. "Are you sure?"

The idiot nodded. "Positive. That's her. She's even wearing the same hoodie."

Louie (the idiot) hoped this would be enough to appease his boss. It was.

"If you want to save your jobs, it'd be wise to get moving and bring her to me. Louie and his friend exited the room, not willing to risk making their boss madder. Once they were gone, the boss switched his attention to the remaining men in the room. "You two," he ordered and threw a small watch-like device to them. "It's time for a trial run. Once done, come back here so we can pack up and leave. Once we have the girl, we'll be done with this world."

"You sure? It's nice not having the League breathing down our neck," said one of them.

"Of course I'm sure! Now get moving!"

Once the remaining unfortunate idiots (they have to be considered unfortunate due to their line of work) left, their boss went back to his phone.

"Is everything alright?" asked the elderly voice on the other end of the line.

"Fine. Everything's fine. I managed to find the girl the idiot brought with him."

The voice was quiet for a moment. "I'm not so sure about this anymore. Perhaps we've gone too far..."

"Too far?" laughed Louie's boss. "Of course we've gone too far, and now there's no going back." Then in a suspicious tone he asked, "You're not getting soft on me old man, are you? You're not about to go to the League are you?"

"The League are the last people I would turn to, you know that. Continue with what you're doing and keep me updated."

* * *

_In a mansion, somewhere outside Central City..._

The former governor sighed as he put his phone back on the hook. He was old, and as such was prone to make mistakes. It seemed as though he had been making mistakes a lot recently. One mistake he was smart enough not to make was to back out now. Doing so would probably result in his death, or worse.

Though, he had been telling the truth when he said he wouldn't go to the League with what he knew.

As rain quietly pattered against the window, he considered his options. He certainly wasn't about to go to the League. But then again, who could he turn to? There was one person, but she was a bit of a last resort. Last resort or not, she was still better than nothing, and was his only hope for correcting his mistake. Picking up his phone he dialed the number he needed. "May I please speak to Amanda Waller?"

* * *

_On the WatchTower_

"He's stable for now," replied the nurse. A whoosh of the cape was all she needed to know that he entered the room. As for knowing the answer to his question, it didn't take a genius to figure out what he wanted to know. It seemed like every League member, along with every staff memeber had stopped by at some point in the past couple minutes, inquiring after the latest patient.

The dark knight looked at the patient who was still asleep in the bed. Someone had changed him out of his suit and into a hospital gown which was currently covering the bandage on his shoulder. Batman considered his friend rather fortunate that the bullet had went straight through his shoulder instead of getting lodged somewhere inside his body. The doctors had a hard enough time getting the wound to close (a high powered laser was used to cauterize it), the last thing they would have needed was the trouble of having to dig through his body to look for the bullet.

Batman felt a hand being placed on his own uninjured, shoulder. "I'm sure Clark will be fine. Remember the time after the fight with Toyman? You were the only one to believe that he was still alive somewhere," spoke Wonder Woman reassuringly.

He knew that she was just trying to comfort him. She had a point that he had still believed Clark was alive while everybody else believed he was gone. But this time things were different. Clark, _Superman_, had been hit by a bullet. From preliminary tests there were no traces of kryptonite or magic. It was an average, everyday, run-of-the-mill bullet. And it had pierced Superman's skin,_ wounding_ him, which was suppose to be an impossible feat for the Man of Steel.

The fight should have been simple. A robbery at the First Bank of Metropolis. Clark was on his lunch break and decided to take care of it. While he did enjoy the League, he missed fighting on the small scale for the little guy, which had given him his start as a superhero. Seeing the robbers threaten him with guns, he smiled. The fight would be over in time for him to still manage a a meal before heading back to the Daily Planet. He couldn't have been more wrong. By the time other members of the League arrived, the robbers were gone and he was unconscious and bleeding while paramedics tried to tend to his wound with little success.

"Bruce, are you okay?" asked Diana, concerned by his silence.

He was saved from answering when a staff member ran up to him and informed him he had a message.

"Hera help us," whispered Diana as Batman walked out of sight.

* * *

When Batman saw who the message was from, he couldn't help but curse her. Was she calling to gloat after what _they_ had done? Sure he didn't have proof at the moment, but he wouldn't be surprised if they were at fault.

"Waller, what do you want?" he growled into the phone.

"I'm not the one who injured him. Believe me, we are working on bullets capable of such a thing, but we're saving them for when they are needed. Not when he's on his lunch break."

"What do you want?" he repeated, ignoring the fact that she knew he was on break. He could question her about that later; right now there were more important things to discuss.

Waller considered how much information she wanted to reveal. Doubtless the world's greatest detective would find out everything in time, but she wanted to keep her advantage as long as possible. Unfortunately to do so, still meant revealing some of what she knew. "It's not a question of what I want. It's a question of what _you_ want. I have some valuable information on the origins of a certain bullet. But in return I want something."

"What?"

"I tell you what I know. In return, a certain device ends up at Cadmus."

"Done," he said without hesitant.

****Author's Note****

Thanks to Loki's Son and Jana Girl123 for constantly reviewing every chapter. I like hearing what people think, and I get chapters written faster.

This chapter is really short, but it has a lot of information in it that'll make sense in later chapters. Next chapter will return to Suzy and Gardner, and things will start picking up.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review!


	9. Back to the Story

I do not own the rights to Justice League.

**Back to the Story**

Gardner's POV

"Are you sure it's the guy?" I asked Suzy. We were currently in my bedroom discussing the latest discovery out of my nosy sister's earshot. I was sitting on my bed, and Suzy was at my desk on my laptop looking at who knows what.

She didn't even bother to look up at me."Even if I didn't get a good look at him the picture matches his driver's license photo."

I couldn't help but roll my eyes. She had his license this whole time, and didn't tell me? It made me wonder what else she had been keeping from me. "You've had his driver's license this whole time and didn't say anything?"

She stopped what she was doing and gave me her 'you're-such-a-moron' look. "I managed to grab his wallet. And don't you think I've already tried finding out who he is? Did that day one in the computer lab and found nothing."

"But you still could have mentioned it!"

In the same tone she had just spoken in, she replied, "Why? His credit cards don't work here and he didn't have any cash."

I groaned. Money would be the one thing she would look for.

"Don't look at me like that. I was hungry and didn't have any cash for the vending machines."

I decided to let the subject drop at that point since with her stubbornness I wasn't going to get anyway. So I brought up something else that had been bothering me.

"Suzy, why do you think he was stealing from a government facility and armory?"

"Because there's no League here to stop them and that's what bad guys do," she said and went back to what she had been doing earlier. Apparently I was boring her with my conversation. Well that was about to change.

I shook my head. "Think about it. Yes there is no League here. They have a watch that can transport them to different dimensions. What's so special about this one? Why not go after Fort Knox, museums and other places with expensive stuff? Why go after a military that probably has less effective weapons than yours probably has? Why not be looking up their secret identities and everything about your world to use there?"

She paused and turned her attention back to me, thinking over what I had said. "You're right. Ugh, I can't believe I admitted that out loud. But there is something off. Most supervillains I know of only care about jewels and wealth. Too bad we can't contact the League and let them know that there's something bigger going on."

It was too bad, especially if there were wasting all their time on Suzy when they had bigger issues to deal with. Then I thought of something and said, "I have an idea."

"Last time I checked I wasn't E.T. and I can't just 'phone home'."

Knowing that she would hate what I was about to say, I said it anyway. "Trust me."

Like I said she hated it, and replied with a snort.

* * *

Suzy's POV

"This is the stupidest thing ever," I complained. When Gardner suggested going to Lucy of all people I thought he was joking. Actually when he first said to trust him, I thought that he was joking. Then he insisted that since Lucy was Annie's author, there might still be a connection between them. And if we could take advantage of that connection, we could inform the League through Annie what was going on here. Like I said, stupid.

Despite my skeptic nature, I tried going along with his plan. Except it backfired and Lucy was in her room refusing to speak to both of us. She didn't handle the news about Annie and me that well, just yelling that we were making fun of her and her story. While Gardner was trying to sweet talk his sister, I took his laptop to continue reading my comic that I had learned about earlier that day. I had started reading while Gardner rambled on about the driver license thing, and his theories, half listening and half ignoring him.

It was surreal reading the comic, but also... nice. Reading the comments about how people enjoyed my sarcastic nature was awesome since most people aren't fond of it. The story itself was pretty much close to everything that happened. It started with the car incident, and was currently on what happened during Thanksgiving with Annie's transformation. Annie herself, was portrayed as a typical air-head Sue with ever changing eye and hair color. As for me, like I said before, the author had gotten my sarcastic nature perfectly. When finished, I started to read the author's profile and tried to figure out whether I hated or liked them.

"Your turn to talk to her," Gardner said, sitting down next to me.

"Nu-uh. I told you it was a stupid idea. Hey, here's a picture of Annie trying to glomp that lion," I said hoping to distract him from where the conversation was about to go.

Gardner was nowhere as amused as I was, nor distracted as I had hoped. I know that because he slammed the laptop lid shut while I was still typing away. And to think, I had just started to sympathize with him. Jerk.

"Fine then, don't talk to her. But don't blame me, when your world is destroyed." And then he stormed out of the room fed-up with dealing with me and his sister.

I scoffed. Destroyed might have been just a bit exaggerated. But still... I sighed and backed away from the closed laptop. In the past couple days I had learned that Superman's weakness was kryptonite and mine was guilt. I hate guilt. It makes me do stupid crazy things like what I was about to do.

* * *

"Lucy, open up."

"Go away!"

This was the fourth time I had knocked on the door and she was still refusing to listen to me. Brat.

"Lucy..." I pleaded.

I couldn't believe it. I was groveling at the door of an eleven year-old. Maybe I should just ask Gardner for a screwdriver to take the door off the hinges. There was the still the slight problem of getting her to listen, but that could be solved with a lighter and something precious of hers. Maybe one of those comics that were plastic wrapped. If someone was willing to go that far to protect some paper, it must be valuable. I then realized that I had been hanging out with Angela far too long, and perhaps Gardner's mom was right about her being a bad influence after all.

"Stop making fun of me. I know there's no such thing as the Justice League and Annie. I'm not some stupid little kid who still believes in magic."

My stomach started to hurt and vision began to blur, just like that one time that Gardner had denied my world's existence. Apparently there was some sort of connection between belief here and my general well being. The whole Tinkerbell act was starting to get old real fast. I just hoped I wouldn't meet the same fate as her, needing somebody to clap in order for me to live.

Lucy continued ranting on about me and Gardner making fun of her, and I continued writhing in pain. I was going to have to do something fast, less I needed Gardner to come to my aid and start clapping for me. Then I had an Annie-worthy moment.

"Shut up!" I somehow managed to yell over the pain, probably due to all my anger at the brat. Anger and guilt combined can be excellent motivators. To my surprise she did, and the pain subsided a little. "I can prove it. Did you ever post Annie's backstory?"

After a moment she answered, "No."

"Annie was an alien princess thing who had some morons who were jealous of her, so her parents sent her off Superman style. Then she was found by a desperate couple who she saw killed Batman style. Then some other stuff happens, something about the Amazons, and a couple plot holes later she defeats the morons from earlier and is named an honorary League member. Sound familiar?"

Once again there was quiet, but my vision had started returning to normal and my Tinkerbell moment seemed over. Which I hoped was a good sign and that she was starting to believe me.

"Maybe..." she slowly admitted.

"How could I have known all that, if what I was saying wasn't true?"

"Did Mari... I mean Annie really help the League?" she asked in a small voice.

"Surprisingly yes. Now will you open the door?"

* * *

Gardner's POV

"I can't believe it's all real!" squealed my little sister as she booted up the family computer which is what my mom allowed her to use.

Suzy was less enthusiastic. "Uh-huh. How long is it going to take you to type all this?"

"Depends on what you had in mind."

My mom then popped her head in the door asking to speak to me. I got up off Lucy's bed and made my way to the door. As I passed, Suzy looked at me with puppy dog eyes, and I mouthed 'you'll be fine'.

Once I was out in the hallway I asked, "What's up?"

"Well, since you're now home and Lucy doesn't get off school till Wednesday, I was wondering if you could take her to and from school. That way I could go into work to pick up some extra hours."

"Sure thing," I answered. It wasn't uncommon for me to do it when I was home. Mom liked picking up extra hours at work so she could take time off later to be with me and Lucy.

"Thanks," she said with a smile. "You know, Suzy isn't that bad. Maybe you should ask her home more often."

I laughed, knowing where she was headed. I wondered how'd she react to the news that Suzy had been contemplating taking Lucy's door off earlier and burning her belongings. She'd probably react the same way I did, and blame Angela.

* * *

_The next day, 3:30 p.m._

"Angela?"

"Lucy, is that you? What's going on?"

"They're gone."

"Who's gone?"

"Gardner and Suzy. They were suppose to pick me up off at school, and I was walking toward the car when some bad guys took them, and they disappeared into thin air."

"Bad guys? Thin air? What are you talking about?"

"Yeah, bad guys. Big and ugly looking, like the kind you see in the movies. And they dragged Gardner and Suzy out of the car, and just vanished, like they apparated or something. Do you think they're wizards and secretly kidnapped them under Voldemort's orders?"

"Lucy, they're not wizards... did your brother ever tell you the truth?"

"About Suzy and Annie? Last night they did, but only because they needed me to do something important."

Pause.

"Lucy, you there?"

"What if they got taken because of what I did?"

"Calm down. If Ashley was kidnapped, it was probably due to his own stupidity. Where are you now?"

"School. I didn't know who else to call since mom was at work."

"Not to mention how hard it would be explaining what happened to the police. Stay put, I should be there in half an hour and then you can tell me all about these bad guys, them apparating, and what you think you did."

****Author's Note****

I would like to thank Loki's Son and AidenSurvival for reviews.

So this chapter returned back to Suzy and Gardner. Next chapter will begin with Annie's POV.

So thanks for reading, and if you can, leave a review!


	10. Back Again

I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

**Back Again**

Annie's POV

I sat straight up in bed. The dream I had just awoken from, had to be real. I knew this for several reasons. Before the dream in question, I had been dreaming about abstract shapes and ideas. Then I was dreaming about very detailed scenes concerning Suzy. Plus I had been in a Sue state my whole time. At the time it seemed natural. While watching the scenes unfold I was thinking thoughts such as 'Who's that guy with Suzy and why is he going out with her instead of me?' Or, 'Costume contest? How cute!' Then, 'If I had been there, the thief wouldn't have gotten away due to my powers'. And, 'I'm prettier than that Angela person'.

Once I woke I realized a couple things. I had just been in my Sue state for some reason, and it was amazing that Suzy hadn't killed me due to how annoying I must have been. Then again she did need me alive if she wanted the insurance money for her car.

Getting up, I pondered what to do. Ever since Suzy disappeared, I had been feeling so helpless. I don't do helpless. Suzy says it's a sickness, but I like helping people, and when I can't it, I feel frustrated. Even more so when there's somebody I care about in trouble and there's nothing I can do to help them. And after everything Suzy had done for me last year (including not killing me while I slept) the last I could do was repay her by helping her.

It wasn't like I could go to Eugene to talk about it, which is what I would normally do. Once he learned that Batman failed at retrieving Suzy, he had locked himself in his room. It was due to his determination at recreating the device, fear of Gary, and being embarrassed over the situation. He wasn't responding to my knocks on his door, or to all the text messages I had sent him.

Gary was probably the one person who would understand not being able to help Suzy, and might know what to do about the dream. Then again, he might start yelling about Eugene. Perhaps he wasn't the best person to go to after all.

Of course! Why didn't I think of him before? The one person who had been helping all along, and knew more about what was going on than Eugene.

Batman.

* * *

"What do you know about Suzy?"

For the past two hours I had stalked Batman through-out the WatchTower. At first I wasn't subtle, and walked right up to him. But each time he somehow managed to get away from. Once I realized that he was avoiding me on purpose, I asked Nikki to get into the surveillance system and tell me where he was. I let him have about half an hour to think that I had given up and he was safe. Then I made my move.

"I already told you everything I know," he denied.

I stomped my foot. "Stop lying to me! If you already told me everything then why have you been avoiding me? And why did I have a very realistic, but informative dream last night?"

"What kind of dream?" he asked, suddenly interested in what I was saying.

"It was weird. I was just drifting off, and then I was in my Sue state. I saw Suzy and some guy having a discussion about how her attacker was also responsible for several thefts from government buildings in the world they were in, and why was he going after a place like that when he could be making off with cash and money from banks, or even other worlds, along with scenes detailing Suzy's stay there."

I paused to let my words sink in. He still wasn't answering, so I felt brave enough to ask a difficult question. "Does this have anything to do with what happened to Superman yesterday?"

"I liked you better when you were an ignorant Sue."

That was his response? Serious events were going on, and he was trying to distract me from the truth by making derogatory comments about my past?

"I'll take that as a yes. What's really going on and I want the whole truth this time. Don't make me go into my Sue state or tell Suzy's mom that she's missing, and the League has information they're keeping a secret."

"You wouldn't."

"Not if you tell me the truth," I said with a smile on my face. Suzy was right, blackmailing was fun when it wasn't happening to you.

"We wouldn't be in this mess if that boyfriend of yours had morals. You should keep a leash on him."

He had a point about Eugene, but he was still distracting. Was that his default reaction whenever people were getting too close to the truth? Didn't he realize that telling me a simple lie would have placated me, and I would have left? By trying to distract me, my curiosity over what he was hiding was simply increasing. Sometimes lying has its benefits.

"Eugene has morals... he just doesn't think of the consequences before he acts. Hey, don't change the subject!"

He sighed. "I have some recent information about a former friend of yours. The next day after Missouri Governor Whitaker lost his re-election campaign the first week of November he pardoned Stuart."

Wait, Stuart was...out? That was the information he had been holding back from me? How dare he! Suzy and I should have been told immediately when it happened!

I took a deep breath to calm down. If I allowed anger to cloud my reasoning, I might revert to my Sue state. And despite Batman's comment about liking me better as an ignorant Sue, I do not think he would be pleased with the change.

"How did you allow that to happen?" I asked as calmly as possible.

"He buried it in paperwork so it would take a while for us to find out. Did Eugene ever tell his idea to Stuart?"

Progress at last. I then considered his question.

"Well, Eugene didn't even tell me till recently, but apparently it's something he's been thinking about since last year... so I guess it's possible."

"That would explain how Stuart knew about the device."

Batman turned to walk away from me, but I wasn't about to let him get away that easily. "Hey, what about Suzy?"

He stopped for a second to say, "If your dream is true, we have bigger problems than getting Suzy back."

Fine then. If he and other members of the League weren't going to help me get my best friend back, I was going to have to do it myself. With some reinforcements of course.

* * *

Gardner's POV

Being whacked on the head hurts. A lot. I'm not even sure what hit me. Just that one minute I was talking to Suzy while waiting for Lucy to get out of school, and the next it was lights out. What I awoke to wasn't much better. My feet and hands were duct-taped together. Looking around I noticed that Suzy was next to me, and had duct-taped over her mouth too. I couldn't help but smirk at the sight. Suzy _would_ talk back to her captures. I was actually more amazed they hadn't killed her instead of resorting to duck-tape. That must mean whoever it was wanted us alive.

Whoever it was, wasn't in the room with us. Judging by the decor it was either a crappy hotel room, or belonged to a person with crappy taste.

"Just my luck, the one time I end up in a hotel room with a bound and gagged girl it's not my choice."

Corny joke yes, but it had to be said at some point. Suzy started making unintelligible noises while I continued to annoy her.

"I wish I had known that duct-tape was the one thing that could keep you from insulting me. My life could have been so much better a long time ago."

And cue the unintelligible noises. I said a couple more things to mess with her, but it got old pretty quickly. The only movement I could make was the wiggle worm which wasn't very useful. The only choice we had was to wait. Which Suzy really sucks at doing. Eventually some guy who looked like he would fit into one of my engineering classes came, in joined by two henchmen that looked like they had walked straight out of a comic book. Except, he wasn't some guy, because Suzy's eyes nearly bulged out of her head when he entered the room.

"She was getting rather mouthy so we had to tape her mouth shut," said henchmen number one.

"Yeah, she has a tendency to do that a lot," the not-some-guy said. At that I started to snicker which made him turn his attention to me. "I know it's been a year Suzy Q, but I must say it really hurts to be replaced."

The henchmen looked just as bewildered as I was. "We're not together...wait you know each other?"

"You could say that. We dated for about a year till we came to... irreconcilable differences."

"Oh, you're Stuart, her wacko ex-boyfriend. I thought you were in jail."

Maybe not the best thing to say when said wacko is holding you hostage, but it just slipped out, I swear.

The wacko part didn't sit well with him. "Wacko ex-boyfriend? Is that what you really think of me, Suzy Q? I thought we were more than that. And I _was_ in jail. Then I got pardoned." He said the last part with an annoying smirk.

The whole entire time Suzy had been making more of those unintelligible noises, trying to respond to Stuart. He finally bent down and ripped the tape off her mouth. "That felt good," he said, while she started to cuss him out.

"As heart-warming as this reunion is, mind telling us what's going on? Because this is not how I imagined I would be spending Thanksgiving break," I said, trying to lighten the mood.

"She's here because I want her here. You're not supposed to be here, but I've always been one to look on the brighter side of life, so you're now going to be insurance."

"What do you want Stuart?" growled Suzy. I think the better question was, what did he mean about me being insurance?

"I want a lot of things. Right now I want you to come with me."

"As if," scoffed Suzy, as only Suzy could.

"Let me rephrase that. I want you to come with me, or they," he said pointing to the goons, "shoot him," he said, pointing to me. So that's what he meant by insurance.

"I know you're not that fond of me Suzy, but think of Angela. Think of how Angela would react to my death and knowing she didn't cause it."

I knew Suzy didn't like being stuck with me, and wasn't that fond of my sister with the whole Annie thing. Since I didn't know how she felt about my mother, I went for the next best defense, Angela and her craziness.

Stuart and his henchmen gave me an odd look at that comment, while Suzy just rolled her eyes. "Too afraid to get your hands dirty, Stuart?"

"Not really. But it's been a while since they shot Superman, and they're getting rather bored."

I'm pretty sure at that point, Suzy and I both dropped our jaws. They. Shot. Superman. _How was that possible_? My knowledge of the DC universe might be rusty, but I did remember enough to know that shooting Superman was like Batman killing somebody: not going to happen.

Stuart could have been a mind reader (and since we were probably back in Suzy's world was an actual possibility) because the next thing he said was, "If you come with me, I'll show how you it was possible. Or stay here and watch him get shot. Your choice."

Suzy just gave him her death glare. "Fine."

****Author's Note****

I would like to thank Loki's Son, Jana Girl123, and AidenSurvival for reviews. Since I can't seem to say it enough, reviews are always nice to get.

I really didn't want to bring Stuart back, since it would be so cliche. But this is the Justice League Universe we're talking about, and villains are always coming back. Escaping from prison, avoiding death, etc... So it may be cliche, but it also had to be done. And hopefully stuff from earlier chapters will slowly start making sense.

Next chapter will reveal Stuart's actual plan for those who haven't figured it out already.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to leave a review if possible!


	11. Never Date a Villain

I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

**Never Date A Villain**

A part of me always knew that Stuart would get out of jail at some point, it was in the Rules after all. I just couldn't believe it was so soon, barely a year after he had been imprisoned. What made the situation worse was that Stuart didn't even have to break out. Instead of the typical villain break-out, he got pardoned by the soon to be ex-govenor of Missouri, or so he explained to me.

I'm not one for politics. I personally believe that politics live up up to their name, many blood sucking insects. That belief goes for everybody that participate in politics as well. Due to my distaste for politics, it shouldn't be that much of a shocker that I didn't vote in the last election, or even knew that much about the ex-governor. All that I really know about him, ex-governor Whitaker (besides the common rhyme that people usually substitute for his name) is that he was big on crackdown on superheroes, calling them loose cannons. Then there was some big catastrophe a couple months ago, and the government failed while the League succeeded. After that, his rantings against them got more intense, but people stopped listening to him and so he lost the election.

The little info I did know, was all courtesy of Annie who was super excited since she could vote in her first election. She did try her best to get me to vote as well, but I somehow managed to convince her that I had already voted in my hometown through mail, so I was spared from being dragged along with her. Eugene wasn't so fortunate. But from the little I did know, I would have never thought Whitaker would have been stupid or desperate enough to pardon Stuart. Except he had been, and decided that releasing Stuart would be the best way to get back at the League who he blamed for losing the election. Yeah, I still can't follow that line of logic either.

Stuart explained all that as he took me into the next room for our private chat. He told me all that, knowing about Eugene's plans and waiting to seize the device, how would take over the world and make the League to bow him, etc... The usual villain mantra.

He also turned on the cheapo T.V. to show me the live coverage concerning the status of Superman. He wanted me to realize just how serious he was and to be intimidated, but the program also let know me that I was back in my own world. I had already suspected that was the case, but it was nice to get confirmation. There was a slight feel to the air that was different from Gardner's world. It was like a welcoming breeze, the feeling that anything was possible. Not that there was something wrong with Gardner's world, I just never realized the difference between the worlds until I returned to my own. Sure, it was against my will and I was in a hotel room with my ex-boyfriend intent on world domination, but I still couldn't help but feel happy to be home.

Back to the ex-boyfriend intent on world domination part.

Once Stuart was done with his villain mantra I asked, "And what exactly does all of this have to do with me?"

"When I found out that you were the girl that had botched everything, I couldn't help but feel it was more than a coincidence. It was fate bringing us together, telling us to take another chance," he said, putting my hand in his and stepping closer to me.

I sat down on the bed and pulled him onto it with me. Letting go of his hand, I tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. "It's funny you mention that Stuart, because ever since I met Gardner, I keep thinking of you and how smarter you are than him and how I miss you."

He scooted closer on the bed toward me. "You mean that?"

"With all my heart," I answered and leaned forward to kiss him.

"I'm so glad to hear that," he said once I was done.

Then with a wink I made my way toward the door and said, "Me too. Now if you excuse me I'm going to have to go take care of Gardner now that we no longer need him as insurance."

"Suzy Q?"

"Yeah?" My hand was on the doorknob, just waiting to turn it so I could enter the adjoining room where Gardner was.

"Did you really think I was too stupid to notice you palming the device while you kissed me?"

I shrugged, it was true. While he had been talking he had also been tossing the device back and forth in his hands as if to taunt me (very stupid on his part) before finally putting it on the bed. At which point I thought I could distract him long enough to get it.

"It was worth a shot. Knowing me, do you really think I wouldn't try something like that?"

Frowning he replied, "I did think doing such a thing it was rather beneath you."

"I saw a chance and seized it. Besides, I was hoping that prison had made you stupider."

He got off the bed and took the device from my pocket and started to play with my hair, just like he used to do while we were dating. "If anything it made me smarter. Why do you think I left it there for you? You know this means I'm going to have to tie you up again. For some reason I'm still too attached to get rid of you completely yet."

I probably should have been mad or angry, but for some reason the conversation just seemed so normal, like old times. I hadn't completely lied when I said that I missed him. I did miss the good parts of him, the parts that made me laugh, or made it able to have casual conversations like this with him. It was the crazy, egotistical, self-righteous, jerky parts that I didn't care for.

"As pleasant as that sounds, you do know at some point I'm going to have to kick your ass, right?"

"Looking forward to it."

And so was I.

* * *

Stuart took me by the hand and led me into the other room.

As his goons were getting ready to tie me up again, he said, "Wait. Did anybody search her?"

"Why would we search her? She's a girl," said one of them.

I was about to congratulation them on that brilliant deduction but Stuart spoke up. "She's not just any girl. When we were dating she carried a pocketknife with her. I doubt she's changed the habit in the past year."

I sighed, whatever sweet moment we had earlier was gone, and he was back to his jerky self. Stuart would remember that little detail. I started to dig through my pockets and chuck what I could find at Stuart's head. "Some quarters, oh, tootsie roll," I said as I put the tootsie roll in my mouth, grateful for grabbing some out of Gardner's mom's candy bowl on the way to pick up Lucy. I wasn't about to throw that at Stuart. Never waste chocolate on a guy. Plus I hadn't eaten in hours.

Then my hand felt something heavy and familiar. "Knife," I said fondly and threw it with the blade aimed at Stuart's head. Unfortunately, the knife missed it and it became embedded in the wall behind him. Oh well, at least I tried.

Still not convinced that I had turned everything over he insisted on patting me down. "This reminds me of old times."

If it wasn't for the tootsie roll in my mouth I might have thrown up then and there on his jerky self. Instead, I simply glared, wishing the sweeter side of Stuart was back. Since that wasn't going to happen anytime soon, I continued glaring while I was tied up again (I actually managed to get a couple punches and kicks in this time though, not that it mattered in the end) and was shoved onto the floor next to Gardner who had duck-tape over his mouth. I wasn't the only one who mouthed back to the guards then.

Stuart made a move for the door before stopping. "I almost forgot the most important thing. How we shot Superman."

With everything that was going on, he had forgotten that explanation and I had been focused on getting the device to remember it. "I've always been more of a demonstration kind of guy," he said, and pulled something out of a bag. I recognized it instantly as a Plasma Gun. Super hi-tech, super expensive, and only available to the highest government officials. Whitaker had certainly pulled out all the stops for this.

Seeing Gardner's questioning face, Stuart said, "This is a Plasma Gun, instead of bullets it shoots plasma. It's not lethal, but it sure hurts a hell lot more than bullets." Then he pulled the trigger.

It happened so fast I barely had time to blink. I saw the plasma shoot out toward Gardner... and nothing happened. At all. He was completely unfazed. Then Stuart pointed the gun at me and pulled the trigger. I was a lot less fortunate, getting hit by the full force of the plasma. My entire body felt like it was on fire, and electricity was coursing through my veins. I really don't know how to properly describe the feeling, just that it sucked way more than the Tinkerbell effect ever did. I started to cuss Stuart out, while trying to shake off the pain.

"That felt good," he said with a wide smile on his face. Did I mention how much I wanted the old Stuart back? Of course by that point, any future relationship was shot, but it was nice to imagine. It was nicer to imagine me beating him to a pulp, locking him in a room full of Sues, or even giving him to Angela to play with. That would be really nice.

When I was done cursing, he spoke again. "Remember the Rules, Suzy Q? Here we have them. Where Gardner—hope I got the name right—anyway, where Gardner is from, the Rules don't exist and don't apply to him or anything from his world. I call it the Reality Effect. You see, any weapons or technology that we have here, but don't exist where Gardner is from, can't exist in his world. That's why even the device has a hard time functioning for long periods of time there. That's why Gardner survived unfazed from the Plasma Gun while you were hurt."

"And that's how you managed to shoot Superman. You used weapons from Gardner's world because of the reality thing, since Superman would be vulnerable to them," I said, finishing his explanation.

"Exactly. It's also how we're going to defeat the League. Now that we have everything we need, we're going to march to their nice little Hall and storm it with tanks, guns and more. Superman was just a trial run to confirm my theory. With it confirmed, none of the heroes can withstand the Reality Effect."

I snorted. "Good luck with that plan. What about Batman, Green Arrow and other heroes who don't have powers?"

"All of their little toys can't touch my big ones. If they want to live, they'll give up."

"No evil chuckle to finish off your nice little speech?"

Laughing he said, "And be called cliched? Now if you excuse me, I have a world to conquer. One more thing though." He picked up the remote control for the cheapo T.V. in the room and switched it from the sports channel to the news channel that we had watched in the other room.

"Don't want you to miss my victory," he said, and then walked out of the room.

Watching him go, I couldn't help but think that once again I was. Gardner wasn't a jerk. Stuart was, and had him beat for the biggest jerk of the year award.

****Author's Note****

I would like to thank Loki's Son and AidenSurvival for reviews. Don't know how many times I have to say it, but reviews are always appreciated.

A couple notes about this chapter. I'm not quite sure if there are Plasma Guns in JLU, but it seems like every sci-fi movie/show I've seen has some version of a plasma/laser beam/phaser gun. Including it was mainly to demonstrate that weapons like it are more advance than what we currently have, hence Gardner was unaffected. Also, it's been a while since I've seen the last ep of JLU, but if I remember right, Superman wanted to build some kind of Hall or building on earth for people and the JL. I don't know for sure if it was the Hall, but that's what I went with. If I'm wrong, feel free to correct me in a review.

Next chapter will feature both Gardners hearing plans that they think are too crazy to work.

Thanks for reading, and if you can leave a review.


	12. Three Impossible Ideas

I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

**Three Impossible Ideas**

Lucy Gardner couldn't believe her luck. In the past twenty-four hours she had found out that the Justice League was real, Marianna was real and had actually helped them, and now Angela was at her _house_. Ever since she had first met Angela three years, Lucy had been secretly admiring her, even basing Marianna on her. Of course, there was the pesky bit about Marianna being a Sue and becoming Annie, and the circumstances as to why Angela was at Lucy's house. But Lucy was willing to overlook the fact that her brother and Suzy were missing, and relish in the moment.

They were currently in Lucy's bedroom, discussing what to do next. Obviously going to the police was not an option. Having to explain to the police that two bad guys managed to kidnap Gardner along with a girl that technically shouldn't exist, and 'apparated' away, was just plain stupid. Not only would they be laughed at, but the case wouldn't be taken seriously, at all.

However, it was about time for Lucy's mom to get off work, and she was going to ask serious questions when she returned home to find her daughter with Angela, rather than Gardner and Suzy.

"There is a completely obvious solution here that we have overlooked," said Angela casually, after much discussion about what to do. "We tell the truth."

Lucy was starting to understand why her mother disliked her being around Angela so much. She was insane.

"Tell the truth?" Lucy repeated, trying to make sense of Angela's suggestion.

"Kinda. Look, you said that your mom was nagging Suzy about her family? We tell her that. That Ashley went with Suzy to go deal with her family issues, which is probably true. Them going 'poof' probably means they returned to her world, which means at some point she'll come in contact with her family, so technically it's the truth."

Now that Angela had explained it, Lucy couldn't help but agree with the plan. Angela was insane, but in a good way. Only someone with that level of insanity could think of such a great plan. Lucy could only hope that she could come up with such a plan one day.

Seeing Lucy's eyes light up with understanding and admiration, Angela said, "No need to applaud my brilliance, your admiration is all I need."

It was then, the house phone began to rang. Declaring that since she was in charge and therefore had the right to answer the phone, Angela picked it up.

"Hello, Gardner residence," she politely responded. To Lucy it sounded as if she was a completely different person from normal.

"Ashley Gardner? He lives here, but he's currently out... yeah, with Suzy. How did you know?"

Listening to a one-sided conversation sucked (especially since it was the only phone in the house on the line), so Lucy was surprised when Angela handed her the phone. She was even more surprised to learn that it wasn't her mom, the only person she could think of who would call her.

* * *

Gardner's POV

It was right after Suzy's ex left, did I finally remember something important. Something that caused me to be rather horrified that I didn't remember till that moment.

"Lucy!" I cried loudly. One of the goons had been kind enough to remove the tape from my mouth, despite our misunderstanding earlier. Otherwise 'Lucy' would have come out like Suzy's earlier unintelligible dribble.

The two goons (including the one who removed the tape) babysitting us, didn't even blink at my outburst. They either didn't care, or nothing I said could surprise them (probably due to the 'think of Angela' outburst I had when Stuart threatened to kill me). Suzy was a different story. Sort of.

"Lucy? What about her?"

I looked at her for a couple seconds. I knew that she wasn't overly fond of Lucy, but seriously? Didn't she even care a bit about my sister?

"We were suppose to pick her up at school!" I yelled at her.

She shrugged as if I had commented that it looked as if it was going to rain outside and I didn't have an umbrella; typical uncaring Suzy."Oh. Well, she's a big girl, I'm sure she's fine."

"Fine? She's eleven years old on her own! How can she be fine?" Maybe Suzy, and probably Angela would have been fine on their own at that age, but not Lucy; she was normal unlike them.

She did the Suzy eye-roll. "Excuse me for not caring, but I'm trying to figure out how to save my world!"

Okay, so she did have a point that there were bigger things going on, but Lucy was still my sister, and there was no need for her to yell. I mean, I really didn't think there was anything she could. She didn't have powers to bust out, and even if she did she wouldn't have stood a chance against the technology from my world. In fact, I would much rather be in a hotel room with two goons watching the Justice League get pulverized than to be a part of it. Depressing yes; but I still had my own family and world to get back to. While I finally understood how Suzy must have felt being trapped in my world, I was finding it really hard to care about hers.

I mean, why should I care? It's the Justice League after all. They're big boys and girls and take villains out on a regular basis. And while it certainly appeared that Stuart's plan had been fool-proof, I had seen so many movies, shows, and plots with similar villain fool-proof plan. Every single one of them failed, just like this one would too. Suzy was back in her own world and she could go after Stuart all she wanted. I just wanted to go home and make sure that Lucy was alright. What happened here, wouldn't have any affect there.

Our shouting match though, had finally attracted some attention.

"Shut up you two, or I'll do it for you," said one of the guys. So they were listening to our conversation after all. And to think, I thought they didn't care.

Suzy glared at them. Then she whispered to me, "It goes both ways."

"What?" I asked, not getting her point or caring about it really. I was still a bit pissed that she had dismissed Lucy so quickly and didn't seem to care that I was now trapped in her world. Perhaps there was still a chance to join Stuart, and we could bond over our mutual dislike of Suzy...

Oblivious to my thoughts, Suzy leaned forward and whispered, "It goes both ways. If Lucy could influence Annie, what if I can influence my writer? Then they could get in touch with your sister, who can get in touch with Annie again, who could then let the League know about Stuart and his plans."

For once it was my time to roll my eyes. "That's the craziest idea ever."

She just smiled. "Trust me."

I just knew that was somehow going to come back to haunt me. Maybe I should give some thought to the Join-Stuart plan, just in case Suzy's would fail.

* * *

_A typical college dorm located in Gardner's world..._

It was five o'clock on a Monday night, and for some reason she had the sudden urge to write down a story. Despite having homework due tomorrow, and still having to pack for Thanksgiving Break-starting tomorrow night and going till Sunday- she _had_ to write. Not wanted to, but had to, really badly.

All those months ago when she started the _Trouble With Sues_, it had been a hobby. Something to do in her free time, maybe eventually she would show it to a couple of her friends. Except those few friends loved the comic so much once they saw it, they showed it to more people, who showed it to more people. In a couple weeks the comic had exploded across the internet. One of her friends had even sent her the link to a story about some girl who had won fan favorite dressed as Suzy at some convention. Once she had taken a look, the comic writer had to admit that the girl had looked exactly like how she pictured Suzy, and the girl was even named Suzy. Meanwhile several imitators had popped out in other fandoms across the internet. Combined, the comic writer felt a joint sensation of being flattered that her work had been received so well, and embarrassment from all the attention.

While the most recent update for the comic covered the events from Thanksgiving, _The Trouble With Sues_ was actually done. The writer had required it to be finished before she even started to post it. If she was going to upload her comic for the world to see, it would have to be completely finished; otherwise, she might never finish it, and what was the point of sharing it with people then? What enjoyment could they get from a half-finished comic?

One thing the comic writer hadn't mentioned to any of her friends was that she was currently toying with the idea of a sequel that involved Suzy coming to her world. It was a crazy idea, something she had set aside for a later date, but that night things had changed. One moment she was working on homework, the next her hand was itching to write and draw as a flood of information came to her.

Eugene creating a device, Suzy travelling here and meeting some guy named Ashley Gardner, Stuart being behind all the thefts in the news in order to take out the League. The craziest part was what came last. That she had to contact some girl named Lucy Gardner, so Lucy could contact Annie and let her know what was going on, so the League could stop Stuart and his plan.

The whole idea was absurd. The comic was fiction, Suzy and Annie didn't exist, and certainly Gardner, his sister, and the crazy Angela chick didn't exist either. There were more important things to do than obsess over the details.

As the writer tried to concentrate on her homework, one little thought kept bugging her. But... what if they did _exist_, along with the League, and Stuart? What if he really was responsible for all the break-ins the news had been covering? And what if her denial ultimately caused the League's demise?

A quick internet search couldn't hurt; and her homework could wait to be finished for another five minutes.

After all, they didn't really exist, and the Gardner's phone number that was currently written on scrap paper was probably meaningless. She had probably seen it somewhere in town and remembered it.

Right?

****Author's Note****

I would like to thank Loki's Son and AidenSurvival for reviews.

Next chapter Suzy and Gardner finally get rescued, but can Suzy avoid hurting her rescuers?

Thanks for reading, and if possible leave a review1


	13. Reality Bites

I do not own the Justice League.

**Reality Bites**

Louie, the aspiring chef, was left behind to guard the girl and boy. According to his boss, Stuart, there were fewer things he could screw up as a guard than as a fighter. Stuart had even been nice enough (Louie was smart enough to realize it wasn't on purpose) to leave him with his new friend, Jimmy.

Guarding kidnapped victims wasn't something that Louie was fond of, but figured it was better than killing superheroes. He may have not gone to church in years, but he was pretty sure that there was a special place in Hell for people who did that; it was probably the equivalent of killing a saint.

Jimmy distracted Louie from these thoughts by playing poker with him. While he was being dealt, Louie kept sneaking glances at the victims who were laying on the floor in the corner. The girl he knew from earlier. Actually knew was exaggerating it, more like briefly acquainted. She kept glaring at him and it was starting to give him the heebie jeebies; he wouldn't be surprised if she was casting some kind of curse on him. Maybe after this job Louie would see about going back to church.

The guy though, was rather calm and accepting of his fate. There had been that one incident earlier where he demanded to know where the girl went, but duct-taped had solved that problem. After Stuart had left, Jimmy did remove the duct-tape from his mouth, so he could talk to the girl. They weren't going anywhere, and Louie secretly hoped if the boy could talk to the girl, maybe she would stop glaring at them. She didn't.

There was their weird conversation earlier about it 'going both ways'. Louie nor Jimmy understood what that meant, but as long as the boy and girl behaved, they didn't care.

A polite knock on the door soon interrupted the card game. Jimmy and Louie looked at each other for a couple seconds, while trying to figure out what they should do. Eventually they both got up and went to the door. Looking through the peep-hole, Louie saw two of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen in his life. Granted he didn't spend a lot of time around beautiful women, but he was willing to bet that these two had to be the most beautiful ones out there.

The one on the right had long curls of ebony hair, with deep violet pools for eyes and the cutest button nose. The one on the left had luxuriously soft caramel hair with sparkling sapphire orbs, and the longest eyelashes Louie had ever seen. So obsessed with wondering which one he might end up with (and hoping for both), Louie didn't notice Jimmy shoving him to the side to look through the peep-hole. He didn't notice Jimmy opening the door to greet the two girls.

Louie went from daydreaming about a future in a little house in the suburbs with 2.5 kids, to gazing into sapphire orbs. Deep blue pools that sucked him in, and once again he was lost in his daydreams. Once again he was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice what was going on around him. Like Jimmy who was drooling just as bad as Louie over the girls. Or the girl with the sapphire orbs swinging her fist to knock him out.

It was rather unfortunate for Jimmy and Louie that they didn't know about the power of Sues.

* * *

Suzy's POV

"Stop flirting with them, they're Sues!" I hissed at Gardner.

Annie had sent them, figuring with their combined Sueness, the first hotel room they checked would have me and Gardner in it; something about how things are always convenient for Sues. Both had only been at her camp for two months, so they still had plenty of Sueness, but were some what normal. Unfortuantely, they were still Sue enough to attract any and all guys to them like moths to a flame.

Gardner gave me a dopey looking grin. "Pssh, I think somebody's just jealous."

Me, jealous? As if. Why would I be jealous of a couple air-brained Sues? More importantly, why would I be jealous of them hanging on Gardner's arm? I didn't care about who he hung out with. If he wanted to lose whatever brain cells he had left by flirting with them, he could go ahead.

The first thing they did upon entering the room, was knock out the guards. Then, they proceeded to introduce themselves and explain that they were there to save us. I stopped caring once they mentioned they were from Annie's camp. While a summer spent with Sues had made me more tolerant of Sues, I wasn't in the best mood due to everything that happened and my patience was quickly wearing thin.

I crossed my arms and glared at them. "I'm not jealous of Flamingo and Crystal Light here."

"It's Raven and Chrysanthemum," said the one on the left. Her lower lip began to tremble and tears threatened to spill over; she was upset that I didn't want to be her friend. She'd get over it just like all the other Sues did. Besides, I liked the names I came up for them better.

"And you are sooooooooooo jealous right now~" said the one on the right. "Poor Gardner, it must have been so hard dealing with her."

"Yeah," agreed the other as she ruffled his hair. "She just doesn't appreciate your brilliance."

His brilliance? What brilliance would be that be exactly? Gardner just nodded his head, too infatuated to actually say anything. Moronic jerk.

I took a deep breath and reminded myself that I still needed them to get to the battle in time to help. According to the news, persons unknown were making a path to the Hall, and so far the League was useless. If I wanted to get across the country in time to stop Stuart, I would need their Sueness.

"Fine, go ahead and waste your time giggling like morons. Just remember how Angela would react if you brought them home."

Gardner's head snapped up at that comment. Angela would be unable to stand them. They were prettier than her for starters, but were constantly giggling and super annoying. And knowing her, a slap just wouldn't be satisfying enough. If he could bring up Angela's anger so I would save his life, I could bring up her anger to get rid of the Sues.

"I hate you," he growled and moved out of the Sues embrace. I smiled; he knew I was right, and I loved every minute of it.

"What should we do with them?" asked Crystal Light. She was referring to our former guards who were currently knocked out on the ground.

Deciding that I could only stand one Sue at the moment, I said, "Stay here and guard them till the League arrives, while we go to the Hall."

Her lower lip started to tremble again. "You want me to guard them? But I'm a hero!"

Ah, the save-the-day complex. Used to Annie and her tantrums, I actually knew the right thing to say for once. "You have to start with the small stuff before you get to do the big stuff."

She thought over what I was saying. "But, how come she gets to go? I've been at camp way longer than she has," she cutely cried.

Ugh. Dealing with one Sue was simpler than dealing with two. "Are you questioning my orders? Do I have to tell Annie that one of her Sues is going _against orders_?"

It wasn't uncommon for Sues to have a nature that caused them to break rules in order to receive glory. Annie and I quashed this nature when Sues first enter camp, by telling them a story about a former Sue who thought she could save the world and went against the rules, too. She got smushed like a bug by some guy who was ten times her size and we don't remember her name, at all. Just that she went against orders. It's completely bull, but at the point they hear the story, they're still naive enough to think we wouldn't lie to them. By the time they're smart enough to realize that we lied, they've also realized how dumb they were as Sues and why we did it. I'm not going to lie, telling them the story and seeing the look of horror on their faces as they realize nobody remembers her, is my favorite part.

The little Sue nods her head and agrees to what I've said and vows to protect the guards with all she has. I assure her that I have faith in (really, I doubt the guards would even be coherent enough to escape with her in the room). I then tell Gardner to shut his mouth.

The other Sue says that she can teleport us to the battle. After a couple failed attempts, Gardner and I realize the reason behind the failures.

All I can say is, reality is a bitch.

* * *

Gardner's POV

For the record, I wasn't drooling. And Suzy was soooooo jealous. Just saying.

But as she said, the Reality Effect was cancelling out the Sue's powers, leaving us stranded in the hotel room. Much to Suzy's annoyance, I insisted upon not being left behind. I may not have been any use in a battle, but Stuart had the one thing that could get me home. Knowing Suzy, she would do something moronic and the device would end up getting lost or destroyed. However, if I was there while she was doing the something moronic, perhaps I could manage to get close enough to Stuart, to get the device before it was lost or destroyed.

Oh, and Suzy had been exaggerating earlier about Stuart being half way across the country. Technically, he hadn't even made it an hour away from Central City, which gave us plenty of time to catch up with him by using car. Tanks don't move that fast, especially when they're in the middle of a battle. Stuart had been so busy with imagining his triumph, he didn't stop to think of what it took to transport all his weapons across the country. Why he didn't use the device to get to the Hall, I don't know. Then again, I didn't understand his reasoning for the plan in the first place, so what did I know?

It hadn't been hard to find Stuart given the trail of destruction he left behind. Before we left the hotel, Suzy had ordered Raven to search the guard's pockets in hopes that she would discover keys to a vehicle that would conveniently be outside. Her Sueness paid off since there was a fully gassed SUV located right outside that the key fit perfectly in.

As we had discovered when Raven and Chrysanthemum arrived at the hotel, Suzy's insane plan had worked. She got through to her author, who called Lucy, who got through to Annie, who contacted the League. While the League had quickly discovered that their powers were useless against Stuart's weapons, they didn't really understand why. But once Annie told them about the Reality Effect, they switched tactics and started to use 'old technology'. What was old for them, was still standard in my world.

Not that it appeared to be working that well.

Like Suzy said, reality can be a real bitch.

****Author's Note****

I would like to thank Loki's Son and AidenSurvival for reviews.

I can't believe it, but there's only 2-3 chapters left of this story before it'll be over. Next chapter will have Suzy and Gardner dealing with Stuart.

Thanks for reading, and if you can leave a review!


	14. It Goes Both Ways

I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

**It Goes Both Ways**

Gardner's POV

Despite their best efforts, Stuart was slowly winning, since most of that so-called old technology had either been scrapped for parts or upgraded with technology that was now useless. While Stuart may have not through his plan of how to get to the Hall, he did think through his plan regarding his weapons. When it came down to it, his arsenal of tanks, guns, grenades, and even armor were too low-tech for Suzy's stuff to compete with, and outnumbered the few materials they did have that could compete with him. Annie had even sent her army of Sues after him, and while Sues could warp reality, the Reality Effect was even too much for them to deal with. Coming into direct contact with weapons from my world seemed to turn them into a gooey like puddle substance; it was pretty much a Sue Slaughter.

Sues were strewn all over like broken China dolls or goopey soup depending on what took them out. Paramedics were tending to the better off ones, but it was more common to see weird half-human, half-sludge hybrids walking around with perfectly looking hair. Raven though, wasn't even bothered by them. According to her, the ones that were most affected were fresh Sues and shouldn't be missed. Suzy accepted that explanation while I couldn't quite shake the feeling that I was in a zombie movie, but with less gore and better looking actors.

Actually, more like a League Slaughter. Remember that trail of destruction? At one point we had to get to out of the car and continue on foot because the road was torn up so badly, and was covered with debris from Stuart's fight with the League. We did run into some police, government people, and a couple Leaguers warning us to stay away from the area, but Raven managed to distract them so Suzy and I could sneak by. Suzy could say all she wants about how annoying Sues are, but she couldn't deny that they make good distractions.

"His timing sucks," I commented while climbing over a chunk of what used to be road.

Suzy stumbled a couple times, but eventually made it over, despite refusing my help. "Huh?"

"Stuart. He decided to tear up the roads right before Thanksgiving. Not good considering everybody who'll be traveling."

She stopped and rolled her eyes at me in disgust before continuing on.

"What," I yelled. "Just trying to make some conversation; just because we're walking to our doom doesn't mean we have to act like it."

Suzy just shouted back, "And just because you've accepted your doom, doesn't mean the rest of us have."

Alrighty then. I opened my mouth to respond, but stopped. Looking down I saw that I was standing in huge track marks, and a short distance ahead was the tank that caused the marks. Perched on top like a general on his horse was Stuart. He was wearing a helmet, a Kevlar vest, and other protective gear that were all probably from my world, in case some League sniper tried to take him out. In his hands he had some kind of big gun bazooka thingy (by the way, I have no experience with weapons at all. Angela would probably know though).

Suzy yelled something at him and he responded by turning around and looking at her. That's when I realized I had my chance to grab the device and get home. Making sure that Suzy was distracting him, I hid behind debris and slowly made my way closer. In the distance I could see a miltary blockade attempting to fight back Stuart's gradual advance. Stuart's goons were in front of him, pelting the military with bullets, the remaining Sues, and whatever Leaguers were there. Since bullets were the only weapons the army had at this point, they were firing back and I made a note to keep low to the ground to avoid friendly fire which would be my luck.

Stuart had his back turned to the front, and was facing Suzy in the back. I had managed to make my way around on his right side, just out of his line of sight so I could attack from the back. It was a stupid and risky move, but I was hoping that the goons in front would take most of the bullets, and the army would stop shooting once they saw me. Hopefully.

Except I never got a chance to make my move since I had underestimated Suzy's moronic plan, it had gone faster than I thought. One moment they were arguing, the next he was chucking the device at the ground causing it to break into a dozen little pieces.

Just like that, my way home was gone. Sure, Batman probably had his own thing in the Batcave, but that was assuming we'd make it out of the battle unscathed. And giving the angry look that was plastered across Stuart's face, and directed toward Suzy and me, that wasn't going to be happening anytime soon.

"Did somebody decide to join and play hero?" he said snidely.

"You're insane."

Not the best thing to say, but at this point there really wasn't anything I could say that could change his mind. It seemed to be the one comment that fit the situation the best.

Stuart raised his weapon thingy (yeah, that's what I'm calling it from now on) and pointed it at me. "You're dead."

Then, to my surprise and his, Suzy jumped on him. That alone couldn't have been easier to all the bulky equipment he was wearing. But then she held on for dear life while he started bucking like a bull to get her off. He finally succeeded and threw her to the ground. Hard. Hard enough that I was worried she was dead until she finally moved.

Grinning, Stuart said, "Ladies first then," and pointed his weapon thingy directly at her head.

I was frozen to the spot. _Get up Suzy_, I thought. _Get up, insult him and fight back._

She didn't. She just laid there, trying to catch her breath. Deciding to play with her, he started firing rounds close to her body, watching her squirm to avoid being hit.

I was still unable to move, or even speak at that point. I looked around for a hero, somebody. After all, wasn't this what they did? Wasn't the point of this world, that the good guy always swoop in at the last minute and save the day?

But there were no heroes; the weapons from my world had taken their toll. The few heroes I could see were too busy fighting Stuart's goon to come help. I was at the side of the tank, and Stuart and Suzy were behind it. I could hear a helicopter whirring away above me, but there was nothing they could do to help either.

I wasn't the hero type. I was the stay-home-and-avoid-getting-hurt-type. But so was Suzy, and yet there she was having tried to fight back like a moron. Didn't she get it? That fighting back against criminals never ends well, just ask my dad. He tried, and was killed in the process, and now Suzy was about to end up like him. And I was just standing there like a moron not being able to do anything.

It wasn't fair. Why did Eugene have to go and create the device? Why did Suzy have to pull me into her crazy world, only for me to never see my family again? And why did Stuart have to have the Reality Effect on his side?

Wait a sec.

_It goes both ways_, said a voice in my head slowly. _It. Goes. Both. Ways._

If Stuart could use the Reality Effect as a weapon, why couldn't I use it against_ him_?

* * *

Suzy's POV

So Gardner was right, ambushing Stuart was a rather moronic plan on my part. I had hoped to come up with a better one as we made our way toward him, but my mind was occupied with other thoughts. Like, I bet Nikki and Gary will have to work Thanksgiving day to clean up all this mess. Or trying to ignore the Sue Slaughter around me (Gardner's words, not mine), and secretly hoping that Annie wasn't among them. She saved the day the last time Stuart had a crazy idea, and a small part of me was hoping she'd come along and do it again. Maybe her back story wasn't any use this time, but surely she had something else she could do.

I also wondered where the hell the League was. When we left the hotel and T.V., we turned on the radio to listen about how badly the League was getting their butt kicked. It could have been worse if Annie hadn't warned them that their powers would be useless against Stuart's weapons. But there were other things they could do, besides setting up a simple road block ahead.

They were still a bit far away, but I could make out a look on their faces. Defeat. The Rules weren't going to come through for them this time; there was no guarantee that the good guys would win. The Rules didn't apply to these foreign weapons; what did apply was the Reality Effect.

Well just because they had given up, didn't mean I had. If I managed to distract Stuart, perhaps Gardner could sneak behind him and do something. Hopefully he'd be smart enough to think of something besides going home (I really should have known better than to hope for such a thing).

So I yelled at Stuart, and he turned his attention from the army ahead to me. He yelled back. I asked him to at least send Gardner back home since he didn't belong here. His answer was chucking the device at my head. He missed, but the device was then scattered in pieces around me.

Gardner looked a little lost after that, but then Stuart realized he was there and threatened to kill him. I jumped Stuart, and he tossed me to the ground like I was nothing.

Sorry for being so vague, but I really don't remember a whole lot before and after Stuart tossed me to the ground like a bag of potatoes. Having the wind knocked out of you so hard you can't breathe does that to you. Even more so when you have to avoid been a big fat bulls-eye while lying on asphalt.

I kept willing myself to move out of the way, or jump to my feet, but my body wasn't responding. What was worse was that I could see Gardner looking on with a caught-in-the-headlights-look._ Do something, don't just stand there_, I thought. _Don't let me die._

But then he got a smile on his face that could rival the Joker's.

"You don't exist," he said. "I don't believe in you."

Of course, the Tinkerbell Effect, or as Stuart called it, the Reality Effect. Why didn't I think of it, before? Actually, why did Stuart have to be the one to have the brilliant thought? Great, now I sounded like Crystal Light.

Stuart's face contorted in a mixture of pain and confusion, as he turned his attention on Gardner. "What are you doing?"

Gardner ignored him. "I, Ashley Gardner, do not believe in you, Stuart, Suzy's crazy ex-boyfriend."

I couldn't help but smile at that last part. Stuart was less amused and moved to shoot Stuart, except he fell to the ground instead.

"What are you doing to me?" he gasped.

"You're nothing but some lame comic book character that can't handle rejection well. You even got beat by a Mary Sue." Gardner had gradually started walking closer and closer to Stuart, who was still on the ground convulsing in pain. A couple minutes had passed, and I was starting to wonder what was going to happen next. My two times with the Tinkerbell effect had stopped by now, and I was curious how far it could go.

"You are a figment of my imagination and can't exist in the real world. I don't believe in you, and neither does my sister, or Angela, or my mother, or my roommate, or your artist, or my MatLAB teacher, or..."

He stopped, and watched what was happening to Stuart. Stuart had pretty much stopped talking and had started to convulse and.. shrink? Sure enough, he was slowly starting to shrink right before our eyes.

Gardner held out a hand to help me stand up and I accepted it for once. Both of us stood over Stuart, or what used to be Stuart. Gardner bent down to get a closer look. "He's plastic!"

"What?" I picked him up, and Gardner was right, Stuart was plastic. A small, plastic action figure version of himself. I started to move his armed and legs around.

"Didn't know that would happen," commented Gardner.

I nodded, but was concentrating on something else: tearing Stuart's limbs off. First his arms, then his legs, then the head... There was a reason why Barbies never lasted for long once I played with them in my younger years. Satisfied with my work, I threw them on the ground and started to smash them into oblivion with the butt of Stuart's weapon. I did think about shooting Stuart, but didn't want to waste any bullets on him.

Done, I spat on his remains. "Reality's a bitch. You taught me that, Stuart," I said with a smile on my face.

"Are you okay?" asked Gardner hesitantly. He had just seen me shred my former boyfriend and smash him to bits like a crazy woman, so I decided not to insult him for once. Instead I said, "Just peachy."

****Author's Note****

As always, a huge thanks goes to Loki's Son, and AidenSurvival for pretty much being my constant reviewers. Reviews are addicting, and yours always make me smile.

This chapter wasn't as action packed as I hoped, because I suck at writing action/fighting scenes. But I thought it still did well, especially with the ending. I've had Stuart's demise planned for a long time. The idea that somebody from our world can turn somebody in the JLU verse into a toy, simply because they refuse to believe in JLU greatly amuses me. That's pretty much the ultimate superpower, especially when you consider superpowers don't affec..t Gardner.

So, there's two chapters left of this story. Next chapter is wrapping up things with Waller and Batman, and sending Gardner home. The last chapter wraps everything up, including one last twist that I'm rather proud of.

Thanks for reading, and if you can, please leave a review!


	15. Interviews and Interventions

I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

**Interviews and Interventions**

Suzy's POV

"So now what?" I ask, looking at Waller and Batman sitting across the table from me.

"I have a couple questions," says Waller. Typical, trying to show she's more in charge than Batman. "If this Reality Effect is real, how was Gardner able to travel here in the first place?"

Okay, so she does have a valid question, one that I hadn't given thought to before.

After some time, Batman was the one who finally responds. "I have a theory. As demonstrated, his world and ours is connected. I believe they're connected in such a way, that the device causes a brief overlap, suspending "The Rules" here, and "The Reality Effect" there, allowing Gardner to travel between. It only lasts a few seconds before the Reality Effect kicks back in, which is why I had a hard time trying to retrieve Suzy."

He lets the explanation sink in, and I can't help but shake my head at it. It sounds like complete bullshit to me, but I'm not a scientist, so what would I know? Considering the very nature of The Rules, it's probably bullshit that works. I'd seen crazier plot devices when in Gardner's world.

Then I decide it's my turn to ask a question. "How come Stuart turned into an action figure? And is Gardner going to be charged for murder?"

Gardner snorts. "I just turned him into an action figure. You're the one who pummeled him into a thousand pieces. If anything, you're the murderer."

I glare at him, while Waller answers. "There isn't a precedence for what happened to Stuart. If anything you saved the government time and money that would have been spent on prosecuting him."

Seeing our confused looks, Batman clarifies the situation a bit. "Nobody is going to be prosecuted for his death, Stuart's responsible for his own fate. As for the action figure part... I'm still working on it."

So he had nothing. The World's Greatest Detective was at a loss for once. As wrong as it probably was, a small part of me couldn't help but feel smug.

"Oh," says Gardner, "I thought it was because I called him a comic book character, and turning into plastic was easier than turning into an actual comic book."

We all kind of look at him strangely. Once again it sounds like a bullshit theory, but given what I've been through in the past couple days, I believe in anything at this point. Actually, it's not really that much crazier than Batman's theory from earlier. I then decide to stop questioning things, and just go with the flow from now on. Otherwise, I'll drive myself crazy trying to figure out how things are possible.

Batman just nods, and decides to change the topic. Wow, he really doesn't like being shown up. "Before you both can leave, what you've seen and experienced in the other world, stays here in this room."

In other words, don't blab his and the League's secret identities. I knew it was going to be brought up eventually, but had kind of forgotten about it. "Rule Number Six. Even if I told everybody who you were, nobody would believe me. People here are blind when it comes to secret identities."

He doesn't have an answer for that, and Waller just smirks. I bet she secretly enjoys all of my jabs at him.

Still smiling, she asks, "Where is the device now?"

This time Batman lets a slow smile spread across his face as he dumps a plastic bag full of little pieces on the table; all that was left of the device after Stuart smashed it. Waller must have not been paying attention when I explained that part. Well that, or just hoping it wasn't damaged too much. Sucks to be her right now.

"You knew something like this was going to happen," says Waller accusingly at Batman.

He shrugs. "I had a hunch. The last time Stuart and Suzy had a showdown, it ended with her punching him. I figured this time it would probably end more violently."

Gardner starts cracking up at that, while I can't do much, but glare. Despite only meeting a couple of times, he knows me so well. Which, is rather sad once I think about it.

Realizing that she wasn't going to get anything else, Waller says goodbye, and exits the room. To my and Batman's surprise, Gardner follows her out the steel door that's the entrance to the room.

Taking advantage of the only time with Batman before Gardner returns (he has to return at some point, Batman is his ride home), I decide to talk to Batman one on one.

"Since I'm not allowed to discuss stuff outside this room, there's something I need to talk to you about. I learned a lot of interesting things while in Gardner's world. For example, you'd be surprised to learn the number of fics that pair you and Wonder Woman together."

Batman doesn't even move, or let his feelings show on his face, so I continue. "And I'm one of those fans. There was an episode that takes place in the future. The future you ends up lonely, bitter, and depressed, which you really don't deserve after everything you've done. You're the Batman, a hero, and you deserve a happy ending. Wonder Woman is a big girl who can take care of herself. And yes, at some point your kids might be kidnapped or used against you, but they'll also be saved in the end. It's in The Rules after all. So you need to get over your rich boy with dead parent issues act, suck it up, and ask her out. And this is coming from _me_."

He just looks at me, before saying, "I'll think about it."

Gardner then enters the room, and saves Batman from more of my rants considering his love life. Batman asks him, "What was that about?"

I am interested in why he had to talk to Waller, but I also want a better answer from Batman. Like I said, he doesn't deserve his current future. That entire episode was just creepy and depressing, and something should be done to change it. Worse case scenario, I'll go to Nikki and Gary who can get the entire WatchTower staff work on setting Batman up on a date. It's not like he can avoid all of them. Maybe even send Annie his way, even I agreed to a couple blind dates if it meant getting her off my back.

Gardner responds, "I was just telling her that in this world, the Justice League are the good guys, and will always be the good guys. Which makes her and Cadmus the bad guys. This version of Cadmus isn't as bad as other versions, and I just wanted to make sure it stays that way. I told her I understood what she fears about the League, but with The Rules on her side, she'll never have to worry about them becoming the Lords or Injustice League, and Cadmus should lighten up a little."

"How'd she take it?" I ask.

"She said she'd think about it."

I start laughing, while Batman glares, and Gardner looks confused. Apparently, Batman and Waller are more alike than they care to admit.

* * *

Gardner's POV

So once Stuart was destroyed, his goons surrendered since they were afraid I would do the same to them that I did to Stuart. Then the military swooped in, and Suzy and I were being escorted to a super top secret headquarters place. Suzy, who had been debriefed before, demanded a hot shower, change of clothes, medical treatment, and food before she would say anything. Watching them all squirm under her glare and insistence was one of my favorite parts. Oh, she also demanded her family being contacted to let them know she was safe.

Two hours later (I had taken advantage of Suzy's demands as well), I was sitting in an interview room explaining everything that happened. Once that and my little chat with Waller about Cadmus backing off the League, I was in the Batmobile.

That's right, _the_ Batmobile. I'm not sure how it ended up where we were, but Batman decided it was the safest way to travel with my, 'Reality Effect'. Did I mention we were on the way to _the_ Batcave? He had a device there that he was fairly sure could send me home, and since Suzy and I already knew his secret identity, there was no point in hiding who he was. This little vacation was actually turning out to be rather awesome.

The look on my face must have screamed, 'I want to touch and play with all the buttons', because he gave a look that rivaled Angela's whenever she loaned me something. Break one, and you're done. Taking the hint, I behaved like a good little fanboy, and leaned back in the chair and dozed. Suzy did the same.

At one point, he asked if 'dun dun dun dun… BATMAN!' sounded familiar, and I told him it was the theme song to the old campy version of Batman with Adam West, which actually wasn't that bad to if you were playing Angela's drinking game. When I asked why, he just said that our worlds had other moments that overlapped before. Knowing better than to push the Batman for more details, I let it go, thinking that there had to be some hilarious story there.

Eventually we made it to the Batcave. I wished I had a camera or something to preserve the moment. Instead all I got was a nod from Batman, and a goodbye from Suzy.

Alright, it was more than a simple goodbye. She hugged me. Not like, I-like-you kind of hug, but more like, I'm-your-friend-kind of hug. Then she said, "Don't do anything stupid. Tell your sister things will get better, Angela to keep being Angela, and your mom that I made up with my family."

That was the closest that Suzy had ever gotten to admitting she cared about me or my family. In return I thought she deserved the same. "Stop dating boyfriends bent on world domination, and lighten up a bit. Just because you use sarcasm as a defense mechanism, doesn't mean you have to use it all the time. Lighten up a little."

The defense thing had to be said at some point. Suzy had a serious attitude problem, and judging by the look on her face, I was the first person to call her out on it. But she lets the moment pass without a clever retort. I'm fairly sure I caught what looked to be a tear hiding in the corner of her eye. Who knew she actually cared so much? Or that I cared in return?

Batman reacts to the moment by putting a hand over his mouth to hide a grin.

He's not getting off that easy. "Hey, I heard what she was telling you, and she's right. You deserve happiness, so stop angsting and ask Wonder Woman out already. If not, I wouldn't put it past Suzy to go to Wonder Woman and tell her the same thing, and I can't see Wonder Woman taking 'no' lightly."

The grin vanishes. He's not happy with getting advice about his love life from the two of us. Suzy and I, just smile at his reaction. It had to be done at some point though, just like with Suzy. Besides, what was he going to do, not send me home? Given the amount of stuff I had on him, I doubt he would allow me to stay.

Deciding to ignore the advice (shocker!) he says, "I've managed to input the coordinates of where you live, so you should appear at your house."

That was rather nice and unexpected of him. I nod, then step on the pad. Then I'm gone.

****Author's Note****

I got three reviews last chapter! Is it too much to hope for more this chapter since the story is reaching an end? My reviewers, Loki's Son, Dark Thunder27, and AidenSurvival, all deserve a huge round of applause for reviewing last chapter.

I hope the explanations for Gardner being able to travel through worlds, and Stuart turning into an action figure make sense. I never explained the how and why behind both and thought it should be done. Like Suzy said, they're both crazy theories, but given the JL universe, they're also crazy enough to work.

Next chapter is the _last_ chapter. No more chapters, no more stories. What ideas I had for a JLU fic, I've used. On a brighter note, look forward to seeing one last major twist. It should make since, and hopefully won't be too cliched.

Suzy and Gardner were both rather convenient in this chapter with their 'interventions'. I've never been fond of "Epilogue" since it paints such a bleak future for Batman. Yes, it deals with Terry from Batman Beyond, but that's the only decent thing about it. Waller's involvement with Cadmus to 'recreate' a Batman is rather creepy. I know Batman isn't a 'happily ever after' type, but he could at least _try, _especially with all the BMxWW shipping in the series. Also, as Gardner points out, Waller and Cadmus aren't that bad in Justice League Unlimited. At least, not as creepy as their portrayal in Young Justice with the 'Light'. They really do have good intentions, even if they go about them the wrong way.

I thought that it was time for Batman to be told to stop being so angsty and hesitant toward having a family. If Harry Potter can get over his issues and marry Ginny, Batman can do the same. I also thought Waller should realize that in her world, the Justice League are, and will always be the good guys. Both are things that I've always wanted to address, and Suzy and Gardner allowed me to do so. Oh, and I managed to sneak in once last reference to Hacker.

As always, thanks for reading, and don't forget to review!


	16. Surprises

I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

**Surprises**

Suzy's POV

So, I'm assuming that I still have an audience who want some kind of closure. Here it is.

Once Gardner left, life got back to normal. I went home, was embraced by my family, ate cookies with my mom, celebrated Thanksgiving. There, Nikki and Gary finally announced a date for the wedding. It was to be in June, right after my college graduation. Batman sent all the stuff Stuart had stolen back to Gardner's world along with the two guys from the hotel since they were technically the ones who committed the thefts.

Annie for some reason, was still seeing Eugene. I forgave him once he bought me Pokemon Black _and_ White. Mostly. He still had a long way to go before I'd trust him again, but knowing that Batman stopped by for another 'chat' with him helped. Eugene never told me what it was about, but I found out from Annie later that his senior design project had gotten changed to something safer: an automatic fish feeder. Quiet, and hard to screw up/take over the world with.

Oh, and one of Annie's blind dates was rather successful for once. His name was Todd and he was a former Gary-Stu from Annie's camp. Yeah, I thought the same. Me and a Gary-Stu? Pssh. But then Annie explained that he was the other kind of Gary-Stu.

You see, there are two types of Mary-Sues/Gary-Stus. There are the kind like Annie; the super annoying, have fifty million super powers, perky, sexy, tragic past Sues. Then there are the barely developed, background character, cardboard Sues. These are the lesser known ones, and they're usually in a story just to make the main Sue's life hell. That's it. If the author doesn't develop their character, they fade into oblivion similar to how a regular Sue does upon being ignored long enough to start questioning their existence.

In some cases, these rare Sues become self-aware of their fragile existence, and seek to develop their character on their own. That's what Todd did. He was originally created to be the stereotypical jealous twin brother of a superhero and turn evil. Except he realized who he was, and who his brother was. He actually did try to help his brother, but said brother ignored him and went the way of the Sue's. Todd then joined Annie's boot camp to get some more depth along with an actual identity, and became an avid gardener.

That's Annie's little joke. He's a gardener, I'm friends with a Gardner. I'm not amused by it either. But Todd's a great guy. Used to Sue's and their craziness he has this easy going personality, and can my sarcasm. Though, I have tried to turn it down a bit. At first I thought Gardner's suggestion was stupid, but then discovered my teachers actually give valuable feedback now that they're less afraid of my sarcastic ways.

Todd's also great because he won't let me walk all over him. He was intended to be an evil genius, and he instead used that intelligence to develop a personality. I'm not saying that he's evil, but he is smart. Unlike Stuart, the only aspirations he has are to open his own nursery some day. I can support a goal like that.

So that's it. Eugene and Annie are still together, I have my games, Nikki and Gary are getting married, Batman is still afraid of my mother, and Sara is still a party girl.

Goodbye.

* * *

Alright, you caught me.

I lied.

I'm not assuming I have an audience, I _know_ I have an audience.

When I said that I could only vaguely remember what Stuart and I talked about, I lied. I did remember what we talked about, and it had nothing to do with him sending Gardner home.

It had to do with what I did in the hotel when I had the device. I figured that there was a good chance Stuart would catch on, so I decided to prevent him from using the device further by taking the programmer chip. The night the device was taken, Eugene had been explaining how it worked to me. I didn't understand a lot of it, but what I did get was that it all came down to the programming chip. No chip, no device. So when I palmed the device, I stole the chip.

The plan was going well, except for when Stuart thought to have me searched. In hindsight, swallowing the chip while eating a tootsie roll may have not been the best thing to do, especially in my world with The Rules in effect. But it was the only idea I had at the time.

And it did work, since the device was how he planned on getting his equipment across the country. Except I had the programming chip, so he had to do things the old fashioned way causing him to be super slow and allowing me and Gardner to catch up. When I confronted him, he started demanding to know what I did to the device. I acted like I didn't know what he was talking about, but that didn't stop him from throwing it at my head in anger, causing it to smash into a bunch of pieces.

All but the programming chip. Like I said, swallowing in my world with the Rules wasn't the smartest thing to do. There was a side effect. It turns out, that some kind of plasma reaction powers the device. So when I was hit with the plasma from his plasma gun, it caused my body to absorb the programming chip. I literally became Eugene's device.

I didn't make that discovery until a few days after everything had settled down. Only because it hadn't come out the other end, and I was starting to get concerned. I talked to Annie, who talked to Eugene, who informed her of his theory of me becoming the device. His excitement scared me, since he started looking at me like some kind of science experiment to dissect, so I lied and told him that it did come out, eventually, and I had flushed it.

He walked away disappointed, but Annie suspected I was lying. Well, more like she hoped I was lying since she was getting I quote, 'Tired of playing telephone'.

Gardner and I had figured out a way to communicate. I concentrated and my author contacted him, and he told Lucy what to tell Annie to tell me. I thought it was a perfect system. Annie disagreed and threatened to out me to the League that I had powers. When I asked for proof of her claim, she claimed that the last time Lucy talked to her in Annie's Sue-state, she had just 'known' through her Sue-senses. And to think, last year I had thought her Sue-state was useless. Just my luck for that to come back and haunt me.

I agreed to at least _try_ to learn how to use my powers. Ugh. Powers. I had spent my life obeying The Rules to have a normal life and to avoid this exact situation. Then, even knowing what would happen if I went against them, I swallowed the device just to stop Stuart. Sometimes I wonder if it's the universe's way of laughing at me. The one time I try to do something right, it turns into my worst nightmare.

I don't count what happened last year as doing something heroic. I saw Nikki and Annie in pain, and had realized how to help them. Punching Stuart had just happened because I was angry at what he did, saving the world never crossed my mind. But confronting Stuart a couple weeks ago had. I knew I was back in my world, I could have just gone home and not interfered.

But I had interfered with Stuart's plan and played the hero. Now I was paying the price.

It took a couple weeks, but with Annie's help (oh, the irony. For once she was helping me with _my_ powers) I discovered how they worked. I had to picture where I wanted to go in my mind. I just couldn't be, 'take me to Gary's', I actually had to picture his apartment in my mind and where it was roughly located in Central City. The greater the distance, the more energy was drained once I got there. Gary's place had been my first successful attempt, and I passed out once I got there. When I woke up Nikki was trying to convince Gary that I wasn't dead, just exhausted from my first deliberate attempt of using my powers. Nikki was the one who forced food down my throat, drove me home, and made me promise not to try again for a couple of days. I was happy to oblige.

I had sworn Annie to secrecy about my powers; she wasn't even allowed to tell Eugene. Gary and Nikki were different though. Nikki had her own powers and both of them understood why I wanted to be anonymous. Once your powers get out in the open, people want to use you. The government wants you, the League wants you, CEO's want you, villain's want you, and not all care about how willing you actually are to join their cause.

Todd suspected something was up, but told me I'd tell him when I was ready. It was a nice change. Stuart would have gradually worn me down until I told him, and Gardner would have joked around about what I was hiding. Todd just let me be. It was nice having a guy around who knew when I wanted to be left alone, and when I wanted to curl up next to him.

Two days after my first attempt, the second attempt went better, and I gradually was able to go longer distances. It even came in handy finals week since I had spent one late night studying for my final only to wake up five minutes before it was to begin. Sure I walked into the classroom in my pj's, but I made it on time which was the important thing. How anybody expects college students to take a final at 7:50 in the morning is beyond me.

It wasn't until after Christmas break did I finally feel brave enough to try to venture to Gardner's world. Gardner, Angela, Lucy, were having an end of the year/Christmas party at Angela's place while her parents were away. Since Lucy was going to be there, the party was going to be PG-rated. Annie had been invited, but we decided it'd be safer not to combine my first across world's trip with first passenger trip. If going solo was successful, next time I'd try to take something live along with me, like one of Eugene's new fish. Annie had balked at the idea, but I pointed out that it was better to take something easily replaceable than an actual person. She stopped complaining after that.

Before I went though, I had promised to get Angela a little something special for Christmas. Gardner and Lucy had been rather easy to shop for. Lucy had just wanted some stuff from Annie such as pictures, actual physical proof of her existence. For Gardner I got him these books covering Gotham's, Metropolis's, and Central City's history to fill in the blanks regarding what he didn't know about my world. He might not admit it, but ever since he met me he had become obsessed with everything DC-related again.

Angela was different. What she wanted was rarer, and more expensive, but I had connections. Nikki was suppose to arrive anytime with it.

Except when I go to answer the door, there was somebody else there.

The Batman. And he doesn't look too happy. Then again, when does he ever look happy?

"Can I help you with something?" I ask, pretending like it's no big deal that the Caped Crusader has shown up at my door.

He holds up a long, thin, pipe-looking device with a sphere at the end that's covered in spikes. An actual mace. Shock spreads across my face, I didn't think Nikki would be lucky enough to find another mace. I was hoping for some training weapon that the League wouldn't miss.

"Mind explaining what your sister-in-law was doing with a spare mace of Hawkgirl's?"

I feign innocence, he may have his suspicions, but I doubt Nikki would have told him the truth. "No idea, but she's not my sister-in-law yet. Bye."

I try moving past him, but he refuses to budge, and stands in the doorway blocking my exit. Our talk isn't over yet. "The League has detected several anomalies in this area over the past couple weeks."

"And?"

"And is there something you would like to share?"

"Not really. Bye."

Once again I try to get by, and once again he stops me, this time grabbing my arm. "Before I handed the device over to Waller, I went through the pieces and made an interesting discovery. There was nothing left of the programming chip, not even pieces. Care to explain?"

I sigh. I had hoped to avoid this, but he was Batman after all. He would notice that there weren't any smashed up pieces of the programming chip among the other smashed up pieces of the device.

"I'm not admitting to anything, and all this is purely hypothetical. I suppose it is possible that one may have tampered with the device and took the programming chip while Stuart wasn't looking, effecting his mode of transport across the country. I also suppose it's possible that one may have swallowed said chip to avoid its discovery. Then if said person was to be hit by a plasma gun, it's possible that their body absorbed the chip, turning them into a live version of the device."

He studies me for a bit before answering. "If that was possible, then it's also possible that Cadmus may never find out since somebody who discovered the programming chip's disappearance added in pieces of one to the device's remains."

It takes a couple seconds for what he says to sink in. A look of amazement appears on my face once it does. Not caring about keeping up with the hypothetical scenario, I reply with a simple, "Thanks."

"Be careful, and don't screw this up. If Cadmus or anybody else were to know that there was still a way to travel to the other world..."

"They'd misuse it, I _know_," I reply, putting emphasis on the know part. After everything I've gone through with Stuart and Eugene I know what's possible when technology falls into the wrong hands.

I don't know if that reassures him, but what he does next surprises me. He hands me the mace. "It's a spare left over from the Thangarian invasion and was in storage. Tell Angela not to kill anybody with it."

I raise an eyebrow at that and he explains. "Nikki never told me, but Angela is the only person you know who'd be crazy enough to want one."

"Why?"

It was one why, but covered a lot of questions. Why go to all that trouble just for me? Why not force me to join the League? Why actually give me the mace?

"I thought about what you said about my future... this is my way of saying 'thanks' for making me want to change it. It's a one-time thing, don't expect it to happen again."

Nikki had told me of the rumors going around the Watchtower that Batman and Wonder Woman were seeing each other, but I didn't take them seriously. Just last month there had been one claiming the relationship between Batman and Superman was more than just friends, and I knew that one certainly wasn't true.

"Congrats. When's the wedding?"

No need to worry, I haven't _completely_ cut back on the sarcasm.

"That's none of your concern," he growls, and walks away, leaving me free to finally go to Gardner's party.

It may not have been any of my business, but what he fails to realize is that it certainly is the business of all the Batman and Wonder Woman shippers out there.

* * *

Gardner's POV

Suzy arrived a bit late to the party. We were all a bit concerned if she was actually going to show up, but once she explained what happened with Batman, everything made sense. Can't say that any of us were surprised that he managed to figure out Suzy's dirty little secret.

When Amy, her author, had first told me of Suzy gaining powers I had started laughing since I could see such a thing happening to Suzy and having her hate every bit of it.

Suzy had never met Amy face to face, and even once I properly introduced them, all she could was stare. To her credit, Amy held Suzy's gaze, and it was Suzy who eventually broke it. Awkward silence followed until Angela claimed that it was time for presents and Lucy agreed.

I don't know how, or think I want to know how Suzy managed to get a mace for Angela. Actually I wish she hadn't managed to find one since Angela will probably use it to hit me with. She already managed to break it in several times barely minutes of opening it. Lucy loved her stuff from Annie, and I actually liked what Suzy got me. Given our history, I wasn't sure what to expect. In return, Lucy and I got Suzy a Marvel hoodie to go with her t-shirt from earlier. I don't know what Angela gave her, just that it made her laugh really hard once she opened it, and she refused to tell me. When I tried to steal the box it came in, Angela whacked me over the head with mace to get me to stop. It worked. The only person left out was Amy since it was decided at the last minute to invite it. She didn't mind, and just said it was a gift to meet Suzy and know that she was insane for thinking her character was real.

After that we ate, and caught up on things. Suzy's way of communicating worked, but it was tedious, and only short messages could be passed through. I was shocked to learn that Suzy had started dating, and a gardener too. As I was laughing, Angela got back at me by revealing that Amy and I had been hanging out a lot recently.

When Amy realized the truth of everything, she also realized that we had to change my character in her story. There weren't a lot of guys named Ashley Gardner running around that were my same age, description, and had a little sister named Lucy. I was just too recognizable here, and if people started suspecting I was real, then the rest of the story would seem to be real to, and dealing with a bunch of fanboys and fangirls was not something I looked forward to. So we instead changed my character to Kimberley Fisher, older brother to Susie. Hopefully since he'll still look like me and is based on me, he won't show up in Suzy's world. Secretly I hope he does so just so I can always know there's a version of me running around there that can annoy Suzy. I'd never her tell that though, she'd use Angela's mace on me.

Suzy did look at me rather interestingly after that was revealed, and started teasing me about how for once I was seeing somebody my mother considered 'normal'.

At one point the conversation got interesting.

Suzy was explaining in detail how her powers worked when Amy asked, "Can it go elsewhere?"

Suzy and the rest of us were confused by what she meant, so she explained. "Think about it. Her world is considered fiction in ours, but still exists. Based on that, what if other world's considered fiction here exist? Like, Marvel, Harry Potter, Star Wars? Have you ever thought about eventually trying to visit those places?"

Judging by the look on her face, Suzy hadn't, but she was certainly considering it now, and had stopped looking at Amy like she was some animal at a zoo.

"I've never considered it, but you do have a point..."

Angela smiled. "I call dibs on Star Wars! I've always wanted a light saber." That was the last thing she needed.

"What about the Reality Effect?" asked Lucy, who I knew secretly wanted one as well. Along with a wand from Harry Potter and everything else she could get her hands on.

"Details," said Angela dismissively.

"What are you going to do, Suzy, travel the universe looking for Sues?" I joked.

She then smiled a smile to rival Angela's. "Why not? I'm sure there are plenty out there, and the people who have to deal with them would be rather grateful. Who knows what awesome gifts I could receive for taking care of their pests."

Of course. Suzy wouldn't go looking for Sues in order to be a hero. She'd do it for the gifts and gratitude.

Then Angela, Amy, Lucy, and Suzy all started talking about forming a Sue Task Force and patrolling the universes, and what they would do in their favorite fiction worlds. I had thought it was bad when Suzy and Angela started plotting, but I was wrong. Now my sister who's life ambition was to be Angela, and Amy, my might-be girlfriend, who had gotten so sick of dealing with Sues she made a comic parodying them, had joined them.

With those four together, who knew what mischief they could get into?

****Author's Note****

And it's officially done! I'd like to thank Loki's Son, Windona, and AidenSurvival for reviewing last chapter, along with everybody who's reviewed, favorited, subscribed to alerts for this story, or has been reading this whole time. When I first started The Trouble With Sues and then The Trouble With Worlds I was afraid that there wouldn't be an audience since it didn't revolve around the League and dealt with Sues. I'm happy that I was proved wrong. I'd also like to mention the "Legends" episode which first gave me the idea of the JLU verse being real. If a world that was fiction there could exist, who's to say they weren't consider fiction in another, but existed anyway?

Now for some notes. I've had the 'Suzy becomes the device' twist in my head for a while, especially since I didn't know how close she and Gardner would become at the time. About midpoint in the this story I realized they bickered to much as siblings, but I still liked the idea of Suzy becoming the one thing she feared the most: a superhero. I tried to keep her powers somewhat realistic, such having to gradually grow stronger before attempting to travel between worlds, and the fact that she would try to avoid joining the League. Batman would have been smart enough to realize she was hiding something, and would try to keep track of her in order to figure out what it was, and I can't believe that he at least wouldn't figure it out eventually.

I hope that makes sense, along with everything else in this chapter. The other type of Mary-Sue which I've never got time to deal with, leaving it open for Suzy to travel to other worlds, and even Amy. For the record, my name is nothing close to Amy. Giving her my name would have just been too creepy.

I don't see anymore League stories in my immediate future. The Rules, the Reality Effect, traveling between worlds, depowering the League, were all ideas that had been floating in my head for a while, and I finally got a chance to use them.

For those interested, I have started a Harry Potter story called 'Prometheus's Gift'. I love the series, but have always been bothered by the wizards lack of knowledge or concern of Muggle technology. Voldemort might have succeeded if he gave Muggle weapons a try instead of being so insistent on taking Harry Potter down himself, with a wand. Also, no amount of oblivating would be able to take down a video capturing magic off the internet. While it could be explained away as a hoax, after a while, people are going to get suspicious. The story takes place a year after the epilogue in Deathly Hallows and features a witch who's realized this, and uses Muggle technology to break into Gringotts, hi-jack the Hogwarts Express. All of that happens in the first four chapters. Updates are Thursdays.

If interested check it out, otherwise, thanks for reading, and if possible leave one last review!


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